Rays of sunshine filtered in through the windows, lighting up the living room of the cozy two bedroom house. The TV was on, mostly as background noise, nestled between two windows in the center of the room. James sat on the couch in front of the TV wearing plaid pajamas. His feet resting on the coffee table in front of him, with a laptop in his lap. He was staring intently at the screen as he typed, the soft clicking being drowned out by whatever was playing. Occasionally he would steal glances of the TV mounted on the wall.

  Viewpoint: James

  My knuckles pressed into my palms, one hand at a time, causing a series of satisfying pops. My mind began to wander to my grandparents' place. The summer heat always brought with it garden work and fresh vegetables. Of course, me and my brothers were the gardeners now. Jack had moved into the old house and had been taking care of it. Although, he built a large fence around the property for reasons only he knows. I wasn’t concerned, though, we all had our issues to work through. My fingers returned to my keyboard, typing out data for a company I had never set foot in. Alert pop ups kept breaking my concentration, messing up my flow as they forced their way to the front of the screen. With a sigh of annoyance, I turned the notifications off. I shook my head and picked up my phone. I thumbed through several memes that gave me the occasional chuckle. Procrastination was getting way too good at stealing my attention. With a smirk, I sent out a few of them to Jack and Lucas. I wasn’t sure if Lucas liked them, but Jack always made sure to let me know he enjoyed them.

  I reached over and grabbed a silver mug from the black end table to my right, taking a long sip. The coffee was getting cold, but I was too lazy to reheat it. I mean too focused. I always made too much coffee for me to drink, but the habit had already set in. My eyes trailed down to the clock on my screen, 11:50am. I worked from home so I didn’t really have a set lunchtime, but Lucas always came over for lunch. My laptop closed with a click, my arms stretching out wide as I yawned. I placed my laptop on the coffee table where my feet were, before standing and making my way down the hallway to the left, leading to the master bedroom. The white walls of the hallway were decorated with a few pictures of trips I had taken with friends a few years ago, and one of me and my brothers. I glanced at the one with my brothers as I walked, it showed me, Lucas, and Jack having a good time by a fire. Our mom had taken it shortly before the accident, but I liked the picture.

  I entered the well lit room, not bothering to turn on the lights because the sun already had it covered. My pajamas were exchanged for a pair of jeans and a black T-Shirt that had a cat wearing glasses on it, one of my favorites. My hands ruffled my brown hair a bit, trying to fix the cowlick that formed from being on the couch. The brown carpet felt good on my feet as I made my way to the kitchen. As my feet touched the dove gray linoleum, an unnatural coldness swept over me, forcing me to shiver violently for a few seconds, wrapping my arms around myself. My eyes darted around the kitchen as if it were responsible, before shrugging it off and checking my phone, “12:07pm.”

  The front door swung open violently, the door knob denting the wall behind it. I never bothered locking it, Lucas and Jack were about the only people that came over. “Lucas what the fuck!” I said angrily, rushing to the living room. Lucas was leaning on the door frame, panting, sweat making his brown hair stick to his head, and wearing his typical white cotton T-shirt and jeans. His jeans had a rip on the knee, revealing a bloody scrape underneath, and his white shirt was polka dotted with black asphalt marks. My expression changed to a smirk, “Take a little tumble buddy?” I asked in a much softer tone than earlier. I was concerned, but I couldn’t let him know that. Lucas looked panicked as he spoke through panted breaths. “No, well yes, ok, so, I was riding over for lunch and I got the worst case of the chills all the sudden, it made me fall off my bike, and that somehow changed my music to the news, have you seen the news?” He replied, trying to catch his breath. “Um, no? I was about to heat up some leftovers or something for lunch.” I said with a confused expression. “How have you not- ok whatever just put the news on.” Lucas replied, shaking his head and moving to stand in front of the TV, his breath evening out. I stood next to him, grabbed the remote and switched the TV to the local news.

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  A blonde anchor woman appeared on the screen. “-reports of rioting and cannibalism have started coming in from all over the city, the police are out in full force taking charge of the situation. They have this to say;” The screen switched over to the police chief, standing in front of a podium flanked by flags. “The situation is nothing to worry about, and completely under control. We advise avoiding the downtown area for the day, and by tomorrow everything will be back to normal.” He said confidently, walking away from the podium as reporters tried to ask more questions. The blonde anchor popped back into the TV. “Now to Hailey, reporting live from downtown.” The tv switched once more to a woman with short, brown, messy hair who appeared mildly panicked. Behind her was a large group of people panicking and running in random directions. “Thanks Monica, as you can see I’m downtown in front of Dale & Dale software-“ My face paled a bit, that’s where Jack works. “The situation is quite hectic, as you can see the police have yet to arrive and there appears to be some sort of riot making people panic, the cause is unknown.” Looking at the large crowd made me feel queasy. I glanced over at Lucas, who was wearing the same worried expression as me. As Hailey was about to continue speaking, screams erupted from the crowd, and the cameraman was knocked down, cutting the feed. The screen switched back to Monica, “We appear to be experiencing technical issues, but we will be covering this all day and will keep everyone updated.”

  I turned to Lucas, his face pale. “You think Jack is alright?” He asked me. I looked back at the TV and shrugged. “You heard the police, they said the situation is under control, I’m sure he’s fine.” Lucas turned his head and gave me a look. “Did that seem like an ‘under control’ situation to you?” I felt the sweat forming on my forehead as I reached into my pocket, pulling out my phone, and calling Jack on speakerphone. We stood there in silence as it kept ringing, before finally going to voicemail. We both looked at each other. “We should go check on him.” Lucas nodded in agreement, “Yeah.” He thought for a moment, “Should we bring a gun?” I shook my head, “You know I don’t have any guns.” It wasn’t a bad idea though, I scratched my face while thinking. “Mrs. Decker has a few though.” Lucas laughed a bit. “The old lady next door?” I nodded, he pursed his lips together and grinned, not buying it. “I’ll go over there and ask to borrow one, try not to break any more walls in the few minutes I’ll be gone.” I said mockingly, he rolled his eyes.

  I put on my brown, laceless shoes that were sitting next to the front door as I left. The sun was high in the sky, with no clouds, brightening the entire neighborhood of houses that looked way too similar to mine. I noticed Lucas’ scratched up bicycle laying on its side next to my white Toyota Prius in the driveway. I walked through the front yard, to the house on the left. Mrs. Decker always got mad when I walked through her grass, but she had a habit of forgetting to return things she borrowed, so I called it even. I stepped up to her door and rang the doorbell, a strange clacking noise was coming from inside. I waited for a bit, then raised my arm to knock, when a rancid, putrid scent flowed into my nose, making me vomit on her doorstep. My hands were on my knees as I leaned over, throwing up. “Oh god what the fuck is that?”