~August 25th, 2025~

The streets were filled with nothing but silence and the crackling of leaves flowing down to meet the cold and bare cobblestone ground.
      The lamps on the side of the street looked as if they hadn't been tended to for weeks, and the sidewalks were littered with nothing other than garbage, waste, and rat that scurried around looking for another meal.
       A sign flickered, Stay inside. Reduce the spread of the virus. The text on the sigh flickered off as a low breeze blew through the outskirts of the streets. It was the end of summer, entering into late autumn while the air grew crisp and colder.

         The Infectious Thrombocytes Erythrocytes Virus, better off known as ITEV, had taken place thus two weeks before now and it had stolen the lives of many. No one knows how it started, or where it came from, all they could ponder was on how many days they had until their skin turned cold, their eyes turned lifeless and their body was seized under the control of death itself.
       Once the virus got into you, you'd feel chills like no other, and sometimes your throat would be too sore to even talk. Continuous coughing was also a sign that you had caught the virus, and if you really had it bad, you'd be coughing up your own blood, which was often oddly light.

      To reduce the spread of the virus, everyone stayed in comforts of their own houses, despite this, the virus continued to spread despite any efforts that were made. Leaving millions dead. The virus was spread through contact of infected blood, whether you got injected with infected blood, ate it, touched it, it always found some way to infect the living.
     It has seemed like the decade of the 2020's had no soft spot for the humans and creatures on Earth, hitting them with tragedy after tragedy.

     The rats near all of the bags of trash squeaked, scurrying off into the depths of the shadows.
      A young 13 year old boy with tan skin looked around, his dark black eyes looked around at his surroundings as he brushed his greasy short dark brown hair away from his eyes.
      He fancied a gray jacket and underneath it, a white shirt, he wore some loose tan jeans that seemed way too large for him and some old worn down black shoes and a pair of black glasses. Dust and debris were smeared on his face and clothing, giving him a more ragged like look. The boy slung a backpack over his shoulder.
        He held up a rectangular object, a phone. He looked at it as the light from it illuminated his face, a smile spread across it, despite all of the crisis that has struck the vast land in the past few years.

On the phone popped up a text from a friend.
'Hey Okame.' -Maxie(Your Broski)
'Hey Broski! You've arrived?' -Okame
'Sure have. 👊'-Maxie(Your Broski)

The boy, Okame, looked around for Maxie, he saw the shadow of a figure slip past a building. "Hey!" He called out. The figure paused, looking back at Okame, he ran to the figure, getting a better look at the other. It was indeed Maxie.

        The Virginian was slightly taller than Okame, he had short brown hair, much like Okame as well, he had light skin and grayish blue eyes. He was clothed with an orange sweatshirt, he also wore some baggy jeans as black as the night. Maxie straightened his glasses and gave a smile.

The two shared a fist bump. "It's so great to see you Broski!" Okame smiled happily. A gust of wind blew past them, the two stood there awkwardly. Maxie decided to be the one who broke the silence.

"So what now?"