The "Unusual" World

Nathan wakes up. He finds himself in his bedroom, his "usual" bedroom. He goes about his daily routine, he calls his mom and dad to check on them. Then, he calls Ellie to check on her. Everything's normal and good. He eats his breakfast, gets ready and then leaves for college. He's in the best science college around. He has been going about this routine for months now, yet every time he wakes up he has an odd feeling. A feeling that he does not belong in this life, a feeling that forever stays with him, no matter what he's doing or whom he's with. This life seems "unusual" to him. He often finds himself wondering for hours about what's so wrong with his life. But each time, he comes to the same conclusion, that his life couldn't be any better. He has a very loving family, he has great friends, he is pursuing a degree in applied science from his dream college, he seems to have a very bright future and he's happy, very happy. What else could a man want? But even after so much thought, even after having such a perfect life, he just can't escape that feeling. Even the world feels odd to him. It's the year 2099 and the technology is insane, the futuristic world is every bit as you'd imagine it to be. A bright world with tall skyscrapers, highly advanced automated vehicles, androids and cyborgs, and what not. Yet somehow the world is in perfect harmony, no wars, no disputes, no crimes, no poverty, no "android uprisings", no nothing. Quite "unusual", isn't it? But, it is all very usual for the common people, it's their "regular everyday". The only person who finds all this strange is Nathan. 

Who is Nathan and how is he relevant?

Well, Nathan Frost is a no one. He's 20 years old and is just a regular college student, living a regular life. Nathan lived alone at a rented apartment, he had a part time job which was enough to meet all his expenses. 

His father, Alek Frost, is a detective...(Wait, a detective? For what though?  There is NO crime in this world, then what do we need detectives for? Guess no one ever questioned that, huh?)

His mom, Amber Frost, is a teacher, now that's something believable, we do need teachers, no matter the time and age. But the catch here is that no one wants human teachers, most of the human teachers have been replaced with Androids and Humanoids because their capability and knowledge is much superior to that of humans. Still, you'd find some human teachers here and there and Amber is one of them.

He also has a sister, Ellie Frost, 2 years younger than him, studies in the same college as him. Unlike Nathan, she lived with their parents.

Nathan had a hard time remembering his life as a teenager, he had completely forgot how his life was. He had seen the pictures, he had heard different stories from his family, he felt like he remembered them, but he didn't. He was pretending so. This was one of the main reasons he found his life a little odd. 

After spending half the day in college and rest of the day at the "Shake Shack", where he worked part time, he came back home. Tired, he laid on his bed. He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.....

It's a quiet Sunday morning, everything is normal. Nathan is 14 at the time. Alek has been off duty after months and the whole family is excited to spend time with each other this holiday. 

"Let's go to the new theme park dad! It's very fun, I've seen the ads, it's amazing dad, amazing!"

"Fine, calm down Ellie, we'll go. What do you say Nathan, you wanna come to the theme park or is there somewhere else you'd like to go?"

"I'm up for anything, as long as we have fun." 

Since the Frost family never actually spent much time with each other, this day was special for them. Mr. Frost had received a holiday after months and Mrs. Frost had freed up her time for today.

The journey wasn’t exciting but they couldn’t wait to reach the destination. Almost an hour passed and they were about to reach the park, but suddenly Mr. Frost’s phone rang…

He was about to pick it up when Mrs. Frost interrupted-

“Who is it?”

“Umm…It’s from work.”

“Dear please, not today, just hang up.”

“But what if it’s urgent?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing, can’t you just ignore all this for one day…?”

“I can’t ignore work like that. It’ll only take a minute, I assure you.”

“Fine, pick it up.”

Mr. Frost picked up the call,

“Alek where are you?” asked Alek’s partner, Davis.

“Huh? What do you mean? I’m on my holiday.”

“I know that…But something very urgent has come up. I need you here right now, I think we made it! We cracked the case Alek!”

“What? Really?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure we’ve cracked it, we’ve done something no one has ever been able to! It’s all so clear now, everything makes sense now…I need to see you ASAP!” Davis couldn’t contain his excitement.

“Wait, I’ll be there in a sec!” saying this, Mr. Frost cut the call.

“What happened dear?” asked Mrs. Frost.

“Honey, I’m sorry but something urgent has come up, I have to go to the office right now.”

“Oh, you can’t be serious! We just got one day to ourselves and you want to throw it away?”

“Hey, I’m not throwing the day away, I promise. I’ll be back before you know it and then we’ll go to the park for sure.”

“Whatever…” said Mrs. Frost frowningly.

“But dad, what about our trip?” said Ellie with a sad look on her face.

“Sweetie I’m really sorry, but I have to go right now.”

“But dad-"

“It’s okay Ellie, let him go, I’m sure his work is more important than our little trip. It was a stupid idea anyways.” Nathan said with a sarcastic tone, interrupting Ellie.

“Nathan, Ellie, and Amber I’m really sorry but I really have to go right now…I’ll be back very soon and we’ll go to that park today, I promise you.”

“Okay, just drop us home…” Said Mrs. Frost.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle suddenly changed, everyone went from happy to sad in moments.

The Frosts were on their way back to home. They were on a highway which was very crowded. So, in a hurry, Mr. Frost took a short-cut. The road was empty and there wasn’t any car on the road. All seemed quiet. Nathan was listening to some music in his ear-pods when suddenly the car bumped into something.

The car was in a high speed and the bump was too severe, Nathan fainted, unaware of what was happening.

(What did the car bump into in the middle of an empty road?)

Nathan opened his eyes. He saw blood, he saw a massacre, and he saw bodies lying in front of him. Whose bodies were they? He had no idea, but he feared that something terrible might have happened to his family. He gathered strength and tried to get up, unable to do so in the first try, he kept trying. He was finally able to get up. He slowly moved towards the bodies. He was afraid, his heart was pounding and he was praying, not to god, but to someone, praying that the worst hasn’t happened. But his prayers were of no use, his mind went absolutely blank and he couldn’t even scream…he saw his father’s body, split in half. He couldn’t process what he had seen, he didn’t believe his eyes, everything felt unreal, it felt like a nightmare. Tears started flowing down his eyes, he didn’t know what to do. He looked around for his mom and sister and the sights he then witnessed were much worse than before. It was an absolute massacre, his family had died brutally. He was about to shout,

“HELPP!!!”

But he couldn’t, he wasn’t even able to utter a single word.

Before he could do anything else, something hit him on his head and he fell down again. He wasn’t fully unconscious but he was conscious just enough to feel the pain. He was trying his hardest to get up, but he couldn’t. He didn't know what to do, he was lying there, crying...Suddenly, everything went black...What just happened?