Population Control

Chapter 2
Origins

Chapter Description: Meet our small but mighty (not so much) protagonist, Cole, and the world and situation he faces. **INCOMPLETE CHAPTER***

"Goooooood morning Helena! It is Tuesday, Janurary 17, and the tem-" Went my alarm clock, as I proceeded to slam it repeadiatley in a futile effort to make it stop. I proceeded to lift myself out of bed, made my way into my bathroom, showering, combing my hair, the whole nine yards. Next I went downstairs, grabbed a bite to eat, and my mom pushed me out the door with a pat on the head.

I came across my bus stop roughly five minutes later, and Nick was waiting eagerly at the stop sign for me. "Cole! Cole!" He shouted. "Dude guess what! Scientists disco-" "Nick, I don’t give a crap about science, I just want to get this damn day over with." I interrupted. Nick gave me a sad face in which I responded by blatantly ignoring it, and making my way to the bus which

was rolling up to the curb. I got on the bus and to my typical dismay, there were freshmen. Everywhere. I mean, I’m only a sophomore, but still, I hate freshmen. I decided to take a seat the closest to the back. Next thing I know, Nick came racing up to sit next to me. "What I was saying is that scientists discovered elements existing past 118 because of an island of stability... It’s super revo-" Nick began. "Nick, for the love of God, I have chemistry first thing today, can it wait?" I pleaded, cutting him off. We sat the rest of the bus ride in silence. As the bus pulled up to the school parking lot, little did I know that all hell was about to break loose.

"Cole, would you like to come up to the board and show us?" A perky voiced asked. "Huh? Wha-" I said, lifting my head up off my desk. "The board...?" The perky voiced said again, slowly realizing that it was my chemistry teacher. "Yeah, sure" I responded with a sly smirk. I went up to the board and wrote in all capitals "SCIENCE, BITCH" Everyone in the class started laughing, except until I turned to my teacher...who wasn’t feeling the vibe. "Principal. Now." She said, pointing at the door.

"So Cole, this is the third talk we’ve had this week. What does this say about you’re behavior?" Said Mr. Felko, the principal. "It says that you’re an uptight bitch wh-" *SMACK* "Dude, what the fuck, did you just slap me?" I asked, dumbfounded. "Watch your language young man. Here at Capitol Highschool, we expect respect for our pupils, and will return the favor. However-" Mr. Felko carried on, as I became fixated on the window behind him. "Uh...Mr. Felko, you better look out your window..." I said, interrupting his pointless tirade. Mr. Felko turned around, and was awarded with a faceful of glass, as the window shattered due to a man carrying an AR-15 style gun and wearing a gas mask breaking through it. The man shot a canister out of his rifle that proceeded to hit the ground, causing a purple gas to spew out of it. I got out of the chair and bolted to the office door, opening it as fast as I could and continued to run down the hallway. The school had erupted in chaos. Men with gas masks and guns everywhere, students and teachers screaming, and...babies crying? Nevertheless I opened the doors to the outside and was rewarded with a faceful of gas. I spun around and changed my path, opting to try and exit the school through the cafeteria. This time, I made it out without being bombarded with the purple substance. I looked around the school parking lot, hoping for a red dawn moment when a random truck comes out of nowhere and picked me up out of this hellhole. That was not the case here. However, I could see someone frantically climb into their car to my right a few feet away. I ran up to the car (Chevy volt, to be exact) and started banging on the passenger window, pleading him to let me in. I then heard the car door click, signaling that he was unlocking it to let me in. I hoped in and we took off, speeding out of the parking lot and onto Brady Street. As we continued down the streets and roads of Helena, it was clear that something had happened. Cars were left deserted on the streets, and random babies were littered all over. "Dude, we better get on the highway and out of here, look" I said, pointing at a checkpoint ahead with trucks blocking the road and more men with gas masks and rifles. The guy driving swerved into the exit just ahead, and we made our way down an essentially empty highway.

"So now that we’re in the clear, we might as well get to know each other." Said the kid driving. "Yeah" I replied. "I’m Cole, I’m 15...play football for our JV team...and uh, I’m a boy, obviously. "You’re 15? You look and sound like you’re 12. You must have got hit by the gas." He responded. "You mean, that purple shit makes you younger?" I said, puzzled. "That "purple shit" is Telomex. It’s made up of element 123 which is found within the recently discovered "island of stability" which allows elements to exist beyond 118." He began. I stared at him with a blank expression, implying I had no idea what he just had said. " Element 123 extends the length of the human Telomere, which makes us younger." He continued. "Of course you don’t. You’re some little blond punk who still wets his pants." He said, with a smirk. "I don’t we-" "Look down." He interrupted. I glanced down at my jeans, noticing a large wet spot. "One of the side effects of Telomex causes the emptying of ones bladder, don’t ask me why." He said, to address my bewilderment of the situation I was entangled in. "Well...can we like, pull over?" I said, still in shock. "No, we run the risk of being caught up in another situation like the one back at school." He said, making me sink in my seat. "I almost forgot to introduce my self, I’m Sam" He said, attempting the lighten the mood. "I’m a senior. I really don’t do much, other than hang...and sometimes bang with my girlfriend, but I guess that’s on hold for now." He continued, with a tear in his eye. The car kind of grew quiet after that. We just continued down the highway, with no destination...whatsoever.

About an hour later, we came across a roadblock. Two Vans with several guards prevented us from continuing our journey. "Uh Sam...what do we do?" I inquired, beginning to get nervous. "We turn around, dumbass." He responded, with apprehension in his voice. Sam hit the breaks fast and attempted to turn all the way around but only made it about halfway when bullets started whizzing by our car. "Shit!" I exclaimed, " Those are real bullets!" I ducked beneath the window with my hands over my head.

About a minute later, the bullets stopped raining, and a man opened the car door. "There’s two of ’em" the man said, "One is dead, the other alive" The man grabbed me out of the car and threw me to the ground.