Meteor

Chapter Three: Samneasa

I heard sniffing around me. I couldn't feel my right arm or my left foot. I groaned in pain and tried to sit up, when my head just exploded with aches. I screamed and laid back down. I could hear an animal near me, sniffing me. I slowly opened my eyes and was instantly blinded by the light. I went to put my left hand on my right arm to see if I could feel it again, but my hand just went straight through where it's supposed to be. I panicked and immediately looked down to see that I didn't, in fact, have a right arm. My right arm stopped about halfway between my shoulder and elbow. It didn't hurt, though, which was weird. I looked at the bottom of it and you would expect to see loads of blood spilling out everywhere and looking gross, but it wasn't. Someone had sown it back together. I looked around the planet I was on to see if there was any life. There definitely is... or was. There were loads of rusty, wooden buildings around me, and out the corner of my eye I saw a tree, or what I thought was a tree. I took a closer look at it and it started moving. I screamed and ran in the other direction.

"Woah, calm yourself, man!" said a soothing voice. I stopped myself and turned around to see a tall man with an afro.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought you were a tree when you were in the shadow!"

He laughed. "Don't worry about it, dude. What's your name?"

"Sh-Shaun."

"Nice to meet you, Shaun, I'm Leroy, I was born in Jamaica but brought up in America. How about you?"

"Umm, I was born in England. So where are we anyway?"

"Oh, right, welcome to Samneasa. Where no one knows no one and everyone knows no one but no one does not know someone."

"Sorry, what?"

"It's complicated, but, if you see someone with a gun, then run."

"Guns?"

"Yeah, just-"

POOOHWA! Leroy flopped onto the floor.

"Leroy?" I whispered. "Leroy?"

There was a hole, clean through his forehead. Another gunshot. I ducked down and sprinted towards the buildings. Another gunshot. I didn't even think about turning around, so I just kept running. The layout of the buildings made it like a maze. I zig-zagged between them and looked for a good one to hide in. Samneasan fish and chip store, local shoe store, sell your goods, trading centre, church, therapy rooms, discussion places, pubs and bars, the list goes on. I decided to hop into the book store to try and lose the shooter. I saw a frightened woman sprint past the store, followed by a big, strong man waving a shotgun around. I hid behind the 'counter' so he wouldn't see me, only to find another two people there. A young boy, looked around 9, and a man who I assumed was his dad.

"We're not going to hurt you." whispered the man. The boy looked scared for his life.

"Neither will I." I whispered back. "Where you from?"

"England." he said.

"Me too, Birmingham."

"Liverpool."

I looked up from the counter, and back down at them.

"I think they're gone."

"They're everywhere. What, have you never been here or something?"

"I got here about... 5 minutes ago, as far as I can remember."

"5 minutes ago? The meteor happened four weeks ago!"

"Yeah, before I got here I... I can't remember. I only remember shooting through space and closing my eyes."

"You must have hit your head hard when you landed. I'm sure your memory will come back eventually. What happened when you... got here?"