I remember... Lights distorting my vision... I remember... faces hidden behind surgical masks... And then, I remember a voice... A distant one... One that posed a question... To me? "Do you want to live?" It said. With all the strength I could muster, I nodded faintly and fell out of consciousness soon after...

New York, Queens.
August 13th 19:15

On the 250th Street of Rosedale, at the highest apartment in the flat, a teenager is leaning at the back of his office chair while staring at his bedroom's ceiling. His name: Aaron Beckett. "I never thought I'd say that... but I can't wait to go back to school!" He said to himself as he stood up from his chair and started fixing his medium lenght brownish hair to the left side of his head, while staring at the mirror in his room with his green tinted eyes. He quickly turned off the fan in his room, that kept him alive during these hot summer days in New York, and wore a black Iron Man T-shirt. "It's so boring I can't even be bothered to play video games anymore." He continued his train of thoughts while he left his room and walked into the empty living room. "Most of the times it feels lonely living alone in Queens, being a teenager and all..." The young man thought while he picked up the mobile phone lying on the kitchen counter and swiftly unlocked it with a face ID feature. "But if I weren't alone I wouldn't be able to do this! CIRI PLAY ROXANNE BY ARIZONA ZERVAS!" Aaron said out loud while he jumped over the counter and entered his kitchen. "Roxanne... Roxanne..." He started singing along to the song while he opened the fridge door and grabbed a couple of eggs and proudly said "Now let's make an omelette shall we?"

After 20 minutes or so Aaron's cooking was interrupted by a notification on his phone, which he quickly checked. "The Older Scrolls VI OUT NOW?! WHAAAT?!" He shouted in disbelief. "Wait... Should I...?" The teenager contemplated while leaning back on the counter. "As a wise man once said... Yes you should young man!" He announced while deepening his voice while quickly rushing back to his room. After 5 minutes he came out of his room wearing a plain white T-Shirt, some black jean shorts and a nice pair of white sneakers. He grabbed his phone, his keys, turned off every cooking device in his kitchen in order to prevent what could have been a disaster, and walked out the front door.

The teenager took the bus to the store near the center of the state of Queens all the while listening to music on his earphones. 10 minutes later, he is walking down the bustling streets, outside the store, with a goofy smile on his face. I cannot wait to play this...  Was all he could think as he already planned to pull an all nighter.  He walked away from the store as he casually distanced himself from the center of Queens which was highly crowded this time of the day.  Aaron sat near the bus station and quickly took out his new video game from the store's plastic bag. It's shiny plastic cover that illustrated a fight between a knight and a dragon caught his attention and he quickly lost himself inside his own thoughts.
Living alone might have it's benefits after all... If my sister was here she'd probably wouldn't let me spend a whole 70$ on just a game... But I kinda miss her if I'm being honest. Maybe I should call...
As his train of thoughts continued the shiny cover suddenly started reflecting the lights of a nearby building. The tallest building in the state actually, built and owned by the Mayor of Queens George Walters. The teenager swiftly turned his gaze to the fancy lit building at the center of town that wrote WalCorp with gigantic letters. "WalCorp... The biggest electronics industry in New York the last couple of years. And of course governed by our one and only Lord and savior Mr. Walters." He thought to himself ironically while he averted his view and continued staring at the cover of his new video game. But before he could get lost in his own thoughts again he heard the bus' roaring engine as it came to a stop just a few meters away from him. While he quickly got up he glanced at the WalCorp building one more time. Something wasn't right... A very strong and flashing blue light was coming from the top floor of the building. In a matter of seconds, that blue light started blinking all the more violently and soon after a big explosion occured on the top half of the building  shattering the glass exterior with bits and pieces of debris falling all over the most crowded places of the state. Within a small amount of seconds drivers lost control of their cars and smaller explosions and accidents started occuring. Tons of people suddenly fell to their knees or unconscious due to injuries and other unknowns reasons. "What the hell just happened?!" Aaron said as he tried to cover his head with his arms seconds before a large wave of unknown energy came from the WalCorp building and caused him to lose consciousness.

"Where... Where am I?" Aaron muttered as he slowly opened his eyes and realised he was laying on the ground in 82nd Avenue. The young man struggled to get up and his eyes almost immediately gazed upon the horrifying scenes in front of him. Tons of people lying unconscious on the floor. Street lights destroyed, cars overturned and people being crashed by every thing possible. Aaron visibly horrified by the scenes playing out in front of him swiftly started looking around him in order to wrap his head around the situation. "This can't be happening, right?" He muttered to himself with a trembling lip as screams and shouts of agony as well as sirens filled the atmosphere. "MUUMM!" A little girl with long blonde hair and a pink dress shouted at the top of  her lungs as she walked down the road with tears in her eyes. "Hey! Get away from there!" Aaron shouted as he noticed the girl was standing next to a flaming car. He was no car mechanic but it was obvious the car wouldn't last long. The little girl looked at him with fear in her eyes not realizing the reason behind his warning. "Dammit!" He shouted as he quickly mobilised his feet and ran at full speed towards the little girl, wrapping his arms around her and ducking as far away from the explosion as possible. When he landed on the floor he realised he had just shielded the girl from the explosion as a ton of bits of broken glass pierced his back. The young girl started crying and Aaron's ears started ringing uncontrollably due to the loud explosion. His back felt like it was on fire and he could tell the pieces that found their way into his back had dug deep. He could feel that one of his lungs was pierced from behind and that his mouth was dripping with blood. "It's okay..." He spelled out weakly as the girl's crying got more intense. He gradually released her from his grip as he turned to look at the street one last time. Is this how it's going to end?