The Dark Mist

Chapter 1: a day in the life of the Andersons

Here, he was standing in front of the mine with a silence on his face just like the silence before the storm, he knew he was not going to come out alive after this but he had no choice because he has reached too far to turn back and go home. He saw them arriving and took his rod from the ground, wore his mask and got ready both mentally and physically with just one feeling on his face the feeling of not fear but pride about the decision he has made even though he knew the risk. As they came and got out of their cars, they begin to swarm around him in hundreds in a circle like honey bees waiting in line to take the nectar, he pressed a button behind his mask and the LED on his mask turned on and the two classic red lines on both sides of his metal mask begin to glow and they got the signal that he was ready to die. Everybody started to jump on him with different weapons like guns, steel rods, some using hand only, sickles and knives. He sprinted for an opening so that he could beat them one by one easily and went towards the open ground in the mine. The ground was covered with a lot of sand but it was the only place he had as an advantage, he quickly stopped at a good vantage point and saw them coming towards him like wild bulls running together he took his rod and began to hit every one on their faces, they were not knocked out but still had been stunned due to the strong hit they ate from his hands.

As he was hitting everyone with his rod he felt a sense of fear in him because more and more people were joining the fight, he was continuously hitting everyone but they were not stopping it was like a convection current as more people were getting stunned the recovered ones took their places to beat him. As he was striking them one after another two people at a very fast pace grabbed his both hands, he struggled to let go of their grip by moving to and fro and jumping on both of them like a small kid does when he is angry but it was of no use and suddenly a man came and stabbed him in his abdomen very hard, he could feel the pain and the burning sensation when the man pulled the knife out of his abdomen. He fell on the ground hard with a baam!! He couldn't move at all, not even a single muscle and he made his mind that he was going to die but he was still determined to fight them just not in a condition to do so. Everyone began to drag him towards their boss, as he was being dragged he could see the flashback of his past and began to remember it by closing his eyes and waiting for his end.

Beep!!Beep!! Josh woke up in a panic with lots of sweat on his face he tuned the alarm off and sat on the bed for some time letting his mind to be cleared for starting a new day, he could hear loud footsteps coming towards his bedroom and the door opened burstlingly and lights were turned on suddenly, his eyes contracted as they were adjusting itself with light and then he saw his seven year old cousin standing outside and taking heavy breaths like he ran all the way here and his light brown hair were all mixed up, Josh asked in a grumpy voice," What's the problem, can't you just come knocking I was awake Alex.", Alex was the name of his cousin, Alex replied," Sorry, Mom is calling you she says it's urgent and needs your help so come on." Josh waved his hand and signalled him to go, he went to the bathroom, his bathroom only had a wash basin, a mirror and a shower but it was quite a big bathroom for three things only, he washed his face and then gargled with salt water and stared himself in the mirror, he noticed that his black beard was growing again but his short black hair were still the same no difference since he last cut his hair and again stared the mirror like he was thinking about something he quickly came back to the reality and then went quickly downstairs. His house was a bungalow with two floors and 4 bedrooms. He stays with his mother, father, grandfather and cousin. His house has a big hall with a T.V, a soft Persian carpet and a big chandelier on the top, right was a door which was the exit to the house and the left side was the kitchen. The kitchen had a medium space with an oven, stove, microwave and lots cupboards to keep home utensils and spices. On the back side of the hall were the stairs to go up the first floor and on the corner were two doors which lead to two different bedrooms, one was their parents and the other was his grandfather's room. Josh went down, his dad was seeing the T.V and his grandfather was reading the newspaper but nobody noticed him.

He asked his mom," what happened, why did you called so urgently any problem occurred?" his mom was making food for them, her hands were all dirty covered with some kind of batter she replied hastily, "Honey, can you please bring some milk, the stock is over." Josh said fine and then went back upstairs to collect his wallet for money and while he was leaving he shouted," Hey Alex! Want to come with me for grabbing some milk?" and Alex came happily with him, they exited the house he could smell the typical Vegas scent coming from all the casinos near his neighbourhood but the casinos wasn't the only thing to see in Vegas something more was there which couldn't change at all and it was the terrorists moving here and there robbing people of their money and jewellery and no one did nothing to stop them because they couldn't do nothing thanks to the gruesome organisation in Vegas named "Kara" and their genocide leader "The Black Skull". Josh was always afraid of them and every time they targeted Josh he would give everything he had with him. Josh knew martial arts but for some reason he wasn't confident enough to fight back and for that reason he always lived in fear whenever he went out somewhere on the street alone or with friends. As he was walking down the neighbourhood he could see people were still out and happy even after the fear of terrorists. His neighbourhood was the greenest one as at every mile there were lots of parks with lots of trees planted there. In Vegas mostly cars from different cities would come to enjoy the casinos over here and some or the other tourist is always robbed by Kara but still people come to enjoy. As he was walking holding his little brother's hand, his brother curiously asked him," Aren't you afraid of this terrorists?" and Josh replied with a smile," No, this people only scare us there is nothing to be afraid of, don't worry." Listening to his reply Alex also smiled and agreed to what he said but he doesn't know the true and the dark side of Kara and what they are capable of, soon they reached the store and Alex went to buy his snacks while Josh went looking for milk. The store was small but convenient for people to walk and there wasn't much to buy other than grocery stuff, Josh went to the milk counter and only one bottle of milk was left and he was lucky that he came early and then he looked at the wall clock and it was almost about to be 8'o clock and he had to leave for college in 30 minutes so he quickly took the milk and called shouted at Alex to hurry up and decide what he is taking and went to the counter, Alex came from behind and put his snacks on the counter and it was the usual Cornflakes which he likes a lot. He asked," How much?" and the shopkeeper scanned the barcode and while he was scanning he looked outside and saw two Kara members were robbing a women and she was screaming for help but no one came to help everyone just behaved like they didn't saw anything nor heard anything. The shopkeeper told," Four dollars please." Josh gave him the money and when he was leaving the shopkeeper whispered to him," Dark times kid, be safe." But Josh didn't paid much attention to what he was saying. Both of them retuned home and Josh put the milk on the platform and went upstairs to get changed. Josh's room has lots of sport man posters of Ronaldo, Messi, Michael Jordan and Mohammad Ali. His room is of blue colour and it has a big window from which there is a sea side view. He has one cupboard and a study table and a bed. He quickly changed his clothes and took his phone, laptop and his bag, he quickly applied deo on his body and went down.

He took his shoes out of his foyer and tied his laces and then said good bye to his family went to the bus stop, his mom asked," you will not have breakfast at least eat something" but josh nodded his head for saying no, his father told him from behind," eat something at school young man or else you cannot concentrate good." On the stop he was using his phone while waiting for the bus to come, while using he saw that he has small scar on his small sized nose, Josh has quite a height like his father, and he has height of 5"11' with a fit body but not muscular. He has blue eyes which are medium sized. He saw the scar and thought how did it came so suddenly but then didn't paid much attention to it. The bus came it was of grey colour with posters hanged on both the sides. He got on and then his best friend shouted his name," Hey Josh, over here buddy." The bus was crowded and there was barely any space to walk through it. He somehow went past the kids and then sat beside his best friend said," Yo Austin, what's up brother and everything good." "Yeah everything is great, guess what happened last night with me", Austin replied, Josh with a confused face asked," What happened to you?" and Austin with a sad and low tone," Kara attacked my house yesterday and almost stole all our money luckily they left some for us because they couldn't find it." "What!! Are your parents ok, I hope they did not tried to attack you with something" Josh asked in shock." Nah, we are alive and ok but today dad spent half of his time in the bank only and mom was still in shock so I had to make her breakfast.", both of them took their breaths and leaned down on their seats. Josh saw outside the window and begin to wonder," why this people are doing like this, we have not done anything wrong to them, what do they get by hurting us this way." As josh was surfing with all this thoughts in his mind he closed his eyes and leaned on the sit waiting to reach college.