Preparations

Green city is a small city, with a radius of 6 kilometers, containing a population of 1,5 millions, it was ranked among the smaller cities in the country based on population due to its isolated position and the lack of industrial projects and job opportunities.

The city in itself is located atop of the green mountain, with a height of 2.5 kilometers above sea level, and surrounded with the green belt forest making it isolated and harder to reach. The green belt forest was named like that because it was really like a wide belt wrapping the mountain from all sides, with a width of 20 kilometers. The city as the core, and the flat circular summit that it was built on, was like a fortress with all this natural defenses.

Having a big forest made the city less polluted, the people around are healthy and can do plenty of activities year around, such as biking, hiking, observing nature and wildlife, skiing and sledding when the mountain is covered with snow in winter, making the living in Green city pleasurable and never boring.

In the past, this mountain was known for its strategic location, providing a major advantage to armies, with the forest to conceal forces behind them, and giving an absolute advantage when defending,though it doesn't matter anymore with the current military technology.

From a bird eye, you can see that the city was cut in half by the wide road, which makes it have a eastern and western side. A white Mercedes V-Class MPV is making its way through the road, as it was late at night, the road is somehow empty. This MPV belongs to Elina, with its big boot, the car was helpful in transporting materials from her house to the company, or when she purchased materials from the factory. The MPV was powerful and had a nice look too, all in all.

David drove the car while talking on the phone. He had been searching for a market, but they seem to be all closed right now. " Hey Lucas, where can I find an open market? Do you think the big markets in the city centre would be open right now?" David talked to his childhood friend Lucas.

Lucas was his childhood friend and his best friend, maybe even more like a brother. Since his parents death, he was one of the few that kept helping him, and didn't abandon him in his darkest days.

" Hey man, shouldn't you be asking me first how I am doing lately ? And why do you ask about markets this late?" Lucas asked back with a dissatisfied tone.

"Ahh, sorry Lucas but things are making me on my nerves this day. Didn't you hear about the apocalypse stuff?"

" You mean the rumors that are spreading these days? Well, yeah my father had been buying supplies that could sustain us for a year. I thought that he was just overthinking, do you think the rumors are real?" Answered Lucas with another question .

" I did a little search today, and i've seen some shit that was mind blowing bro, don't think that those are just rumors, a lot of people are doing preparations like your father. So I thought I should do the same just in case, I'm heading to the big market near the hospital, it may be still opened", Davis answered, getting closer to his destination.

" There must be at least one open market, I'll tag along with you. Just come to my house first, okay ?".

" Okay, when I reach your house I'll call you. I'm close anyway".

After 2 minutes, Davis stopped the car in front of a big villa, since Lucas' father was the mayor of green city, and had a big company in the nearby big city too, being rich, having a villa with a big garden wasn't much to him.

A big bald guy full of muscles, 2 meters tall, a flimsy copy of Arnold schwanz-something got in the car and sat with difficulty in the front seat, making the car sway to his side.

" Oy Lucas, aren't you going too much with your weight?" Davis gave him an odd look while the two shook their hands.

Davis slapped the bald head with his hand and said with a teasing tone " how can your girlfriend handle you when you are like this, ehh? I'm afraid you will go to jail for crushing her to death under you, you beast".

" How can you say that boss, I can just make her on top to avoid problems then" Lucas said scratching his bald head " Mary says the same too, she thinks that i got bigger lately, in a lot of places hahaha".

" Besides, boss, I feel that my body is weird. I didn't feel exhausted when I trained at the gym, I didn't even need to sleep as much as I used to. do you think it's a bad thing boss?".

" Why would it be bad? The only bad thing is your huge body. Hmm, when you mention it, I just did a 2 hour workout and didn't get tired at all, do you think it's the same?!" Davis zoned out a bit recalling something, "didn't they mention the same thing on the internet, saying that some people started to change, is it just a coincidence?".

" Hey boss, aren't we going to the market?" While he was deep in thought, Lucas reminded him of his purpose of getting out this late.

" Ah, yeah I got a little distracted, we'll go right away". Davis drove the car making it to the market in 3 minutes or so. Fortunately, the market was still open.

When they got inside the 2 story basement, they found it bustling with people unlike the usual, as it should be quiet and empty around this time of the day.

" Seems that you are not the only worried one Davis", Lucas said with a surprised face.

"As I thought, it's not as simple as we think, things are getting messier"Davis thought inside his chaotic mind. "Alright, let's get our business done", he rushed to the food wing to buy what he needed.

After some time, as the two of them were loading the car with what they brought, Lucas asked a question that was still bothering him, " hey boss, can you tell me again why you brought this big axe?"

" Oy baldy, i've already told you, Elina has this cat that is becoming bigger like those animals on the internet. I'm afraid that it may mutate and hurt us, so of course I should do something to prevent it. If shit happens, I need something to kill the cat".

" Then why didn't you just kill it before the mutation happens? you are such an idiot boss" Lucas said, making fun of Davis.

" You think you are smart huh? you want me to kill my kind Elina's pet just like that, and tell her that the cat is turning into a beast that will eat you, and after that what?" Davis glaring at the bald giant, " I've already thinked about it, but that would make Elina sad and angry, she may even hate me, I'm not taking any chances with that, you muscle head".

The two stopped talking for a moment, before Davis resumed his talk.

"Oy Lucas".

"What?".

" Say, do you think your father may have some weapons? like a gun or something", Davis asked Lucas with a serious face.

"B,boss, you are not asking me to sneak a weapon from the mayor's room don't you?" .

Davis put his arm around the baldy neck, and whispered to him, "Don't worry Lucas, I'm just borrowing it from you, it's a last resort to kill the big cat if I get caught in a bad situation".

Davis knew that he couldn't convince Lucas that easily, so he came closer to his ear and said something that made his giant friend back cold with sweat and his face white as a sheet," do me this favor Baldy, and I promise you that I will not tell Mary about the little deed you did last week, hehehe".

Lucas' memory travels back a week ago when he had that wonderful night with 2 strippers, then he imagined the situation if 'the volcanic temper' Mary knew, his legs became weak and he felt cold all over his body.

Mary, 'the volcanic temper', has deserved her nickname, even with his gigantic body he has no chance to withstand her wrath if she knew.

"I'll remember this boss", with a defeated sight, Lucas promised his hateful boss that he would deliver him the gun, but he should not reveal it in the open. Their country wasn't allowing its citizens to be armed, if he got caught he may be in deep trouble.

Lucas' father was an exception, due to his job as a mayor and his social relations, he could lay his hand on something like this without being caught.

" Lucas, can you also send a message to Jason and Liliane please, tell them to buy supplies as fast as they can and stay in their university dorm, don't forget your girlfriend too. At least till we can be sure that the situation is stable", Davis said as he just remembered that not all people knew about the latest abnormalities.

" Jason is still mad huh, you guys didn't clarify the misunderstanding yet?"

" Nah, the idiot didn't even want to listen, so how could we? you know him, he is so stubborn, luckily Jenny can fix it, so don't worry. Things would be fine when he calms down, just send them the message", Davis said while cursing under his breath when he remembered the little quarrel they had last week.

The situation was briefly like this: Davis treats Jenny as his little sister, they were classmates and good friends, while Jason was her boyfriend, so naturally Davis and Jason knew about each other, and the relation between them and Jenny. Jason was a good person, even though sometimes he acts like a spoiled child and throws tantrums here and there. When you need him, he will stand with you no matter what .

But last week, he caught Davis and Jenny hugging each other, of course to both of them, it was just a simple hug between a big brother and a sister, but for Jason it looked like treason to him. And the reason for the hug was this simple: Davis gave Jenny a birthday gift and she hugged him as an act of appreciation. The idiot Jason started to act like a madman, but if he could use his brain a little bit, they wouldn't be in this situation, because Davis and Jenny were waiting for him and they knew that he was coming, so if they really wanted to have an affair, they could have booked a hotel room and did the deed there, not inside Lucas house.

Davis' friends can be counted on one hand, Lucas his childhood friend and unborn brother, Jenny his classmate, Jason the jackass friend that keeps the gang lively and finally Marry, Lucas girlfriend.

After some chit chat, they got to the mayor villa, it took Lucas 20 minutes to sneak the gun out. Davis bid Lucas farwell and drove the full MPV back home.

By a twist of fate, Davis decided to use another route that takes more time to return, since Elina is sleeping, he thought shouldn't hurry back . He went through the tourist road that was on the outskirts of the city, near the borders of the green belt forest.

Watching the dazzling stars in the dark night, Davis drives leisurely, enjoying the chillness of the cold wind hitting his face. "I wish that all the changes happening lately are just a false alarm, humans have been living for ten thousands of years, it can't be that the end of the world would occur in our age right?", Davis really has a hard time accepting this possibility. He wishes to live his life normally, following his simple dreams and having a family.

He had read apocalypse novels, and watched movies of the same genre, he really dreamed of living that story, and have the same adventures as the hero, but when he came to know that the possibility of that happening may be really true, and weighted the cons and pros, that dream vanished and was replaced by the wish of having just a normal and peaceful life.

Davis suddenly furrowed, " hmm,i feel like i forgot something really important, this feeling of something scratching the inside of my head is really annoying". So he tried to recall if he forgot to warn someone important to him.

" Someone important, hmm, my darling Elina, the baldy and his tigress, little Janny and the dogshit Jason, that's all, hmm no the-" suddenly all of his body tensed up and he almost lost control of the car.

Davis quickly took his phone searching for a specific contact, when he found it he started at the name for a moment, then he steeled his heart and delayed the number, 'even if she told me to never call her, and she is the who could call me instead, but i have no choice, the situation is serious'.

Davis called the number and waited, after some time an impatient voice was heard making him shake his head " why did you call me? why can't you listen for once?".

" I know what you told me, i was worried about you and i wanted to warn you about the situation, i think you should buy suppli-" Davis responded with an aggrieved face, and he couldn't even finish his talk when he got cut.

" We already did, you think i didn't know, i'm the vice president of a global corporation for god sake, i don't need you to babysit me" the woman answered with haughty and arrogant tone making Davis twitch his mouth, he always got annoyed with her way of talking, but when he remembered that this was just her making a facade, he sighted.

" I really missed you" he said with a nostalgic, pained face, and with a longing tone he confessed " you know, even though the time we spent together wasn't long, i could never forget it, never forget you, Sophia" then he adds with softer tone, " and here you are scolding me for being worried about you".

The time seemed to stop, as Davis was recalling some lovely memories and waiting for an answer, and after some time, the answer came, but unfortunately he couldn't hear it.

" Davis, i--".

"BOOOM" ( sound of something smashing into the car)

"SCREAACH" ( sound of the car sliding on the road)

"CRAASH" ( sound of the car crashing into roadside barriers"

" ARGHH", David who was dazed and didn't even know what happened, was frightened, his head crashed into the steering wheel and he lost consciousness. After the car crashed, lost its balance and fell off the road to the side of the mountain, it kept rolling and falling deep into the forest. If Davis was awake, he could have seen a huge thing falling with the car.

After the gravity lost its effects, the car could be seen upside down, deep in the forest, Davis seemed in a bad shape covered in blood, fortunately, he wore his seat belt or things may be worse.

The phone that he was holding was damaged, but still operating as you can hear the voice of the woman calling his name. Her voice lost all its arrogance and haughtiness, now full of anxiety and concern. After some minutes, the phone lost its last bit of endurance as it displayed the word 'WIFEY' in the dark silenced car before it finally lost all power .