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Prologue

Nick wrapped his arms around his body shivering slightly. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, after all he was in Louisiana and let’s face it, even in February it isn’t that cold. However, he has been living in California for years now, and anything below 70 was freaking cold to him. He stood next to his car taking in his surrounding; six years hadn’t changed much of his hometown. It was still small, dirty and smelled like cow crap. That was Loranger for you though. It was a small dairy town in the Southeast corner of Louisiana. It has its good sides too. It was beautiful, full of trees and streams and gravel roads that led to beautiful sandy banks of the Tangiboahia River. Man did he have some fond memories of the River. It was the hang out back in the day. Every weekend in high school was spent parting at the river with friends. He smiled as this memory registered through his mind. That was when life was so much easier than it is now. Now life sucked, now life was full of complications.

As mentioned before Nick hasn’t visited his home town in six years. You could say he didn’t leave on the best of terms. He was practically forced to leave. Forced to join the military, well almost forced, it was either that or jail, and that never seemed like something he would handle to well. Sighing as he thought about how stupid he had been that night. How if only he could go back and take that one night back. That wouldn’t happen though, so what was the point in dwelling on it. He was really just worried about seeing his father, who happened to be the Mayor of Loranger; he knew that he had really disappointed him. That was really why he hadn’t been back the entire time he was enlisted. He was ashamed of what his father might think of him. It didn’t help matters that his brother was prefect! Never had Kevin ever let his father down. He had never once gotten into trouble; in fact he was following in his father’s footsteps. He recently finished law school and moved back to town to start his own private firm. How was a screw up supposed to compete with perfection?

Nick knew this day would come, but he honestly wasn’t looking forward to it. He received an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps and was sent back to his home of record. He could’ve stayed in California, but he was sure he couldn’t afford it. And for him that meant finding was he could afford to stay, which translates into getting into trouble. So here he was, back home not really sure of what to do with himself. Looking up at the business in front of him, he smiled remembering once again all of the memories he had from the diner. Tallo’s was the place you went for a non home cooked meal around there. There weren’t any McDonalds, or Taco Bells around. There was Tallo’s conveniently located in the middle of town and then there was Wilbur and Tuffy’s which was down the road on your way out of town. Smirking he ran his hand through his blonde hair and made his way into Tallo’s.

This too, hadn’t changed at all. It still had the same uncomfortable red booths, lined around the perimeter, and tables scattered haphazardly throughout the dining area. Sitting in the first available booth, he looked around taking everything in. He recognized a few people, but none worth really noting. Pulling his attention to the menu in front of him, he laughed out loud as he realized how dumb he felt. He knew the menu by heart. Just then his thoughts were interrupted.

“Hello, Welcome to Tallo’s….” The girl started.

“Holy Shit! Jessica?” Nick half asked the girl standing in front of him.

“Well I’ll be look what the cat drug in! Nick Carter has decided to show his face in Loranger. To what do we owe this honor?” She replied trying to act like she wasn’t excited to see him.

“I just got discharged, so I figured it was time to come home.” He replied shrugging his shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal.

“Have you seen you dad or Kevin yet?” she asked.

“Kevin’s back?” He asked. The last he knew was he was in New Orleans going to Tulane Law School.

“Yea, he just opened his own law firm here. Too bad he wasn’t around back when you needed a lawyer huh?” she said taking a small jab at him.

“Yea too bad.”

“His wife was in here about an hour ago.” Jessica continued.

“Wife? Kevin is married?” Nick asked shocked.

“Yea, you didn’t know? Her name is Kristin. Really pretty, sweet, quite, you know the kind of girl you would imagine Kevin ending up with….So I take that is a no, you haven’t seen them yet?”

“No….I just got in. Felt a little hungry and figured what better place to stop and eat at than Tallo’s. What about you. Why are you working here?”

“Well, long story short, got married, he ruined my credit, cheated on me, beat the crap out of me, got divorced. Now I am working in Tallo’s and living in a mobile home, something I swore I would never do, but hey that is all I can afford right now.”

“Who did you marry?” he asked curious of who tamed the wild Jessica he used to fuck in the woods.

“Brett.”

“No shit, you married Brett Huggins? You have got to be shitting me! I would have never in a million years put you two together.”

“Yea, well I guess that is why it didn’t work….So what can I get ya?”

“I want some fried green tomatoes and I will have the chicken fried steak and fries.” Nick said licking his lips.

Jessica laughed as she wrote down his order, “Haven’t had food like this in a while I presume.”

“You presumed right!”

“What do you want to drink?”

“Miller light, draft if you have it.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back with that.”

Nick looked around the room again, spotting a news paper on one of the empty tables, he decided that now was a good time to look for a place to live. He couldn’t very well move back in with his parents. Hell he didn’t even know if his parents were going to speak to him. Looking through the classifieds he circled a few apartments for rent as well as few ads that were requesting roommates. Just then he heard a voice that he would recognize anywhere. Looking up from the table his eyes met with the guy who had been his best friend since practically birth. He smiled the biggest smile he had so far that day as soon as he registered the voice.

“Holy shit, Carter! Man it is good to see you!” the guy said pulling Nick up out of the booth and wrapping his arms around him in a tight bear hug.

“No shit, right? How have you been man?” Nick said just as excited to see him.

“Good, well almost good. Mom and Dad died a couple years back so I had to take over the farm, and take over responsibilities with Laura.” He said confessing what Nick had missed.

“Man, Alex that sucks. I am so sorry about that. How are you holding up? How is Laura holding up?”

Just then a red head poked walked up to Alex signing something to him. “That is Laura? Oh my God I have been gone for too long.”

Laura looked at Nick and then back at Alex “Who is that?” she signed again.

“It is Nick, Laura. You remember Nick right?” Alex replied signing and speaking out loud so that both Nick and Laura understood him. Laura was born deaf, but could speak better well, and was exceptionally good at reading lips.

“That’s Nick!” she said pointing at Nick her eyes wide. Alex nodded his head yes. Laura looked up at Nick and said “You changed a lot!” signing while speaking.

“So have you.” Nick replied being sure to look directly at her.

“So what is up man? What brings you back to Loranger?” Alex asked sitting down across the booth from Nick.

“I just got discharged. I am free! So I figured it would be a good time to come back home.”

“You staying long?”

“I was thinking about it. You know get my own place, see if I can’t start over on a better foot this time.” He replied smirking.

“Yea, well welcome back dude!”

Nick enjoyed his lunch with Alex and Laura catching up on everything he had missed the last six years. He couldn’t believe the people who had ended up marrying each other, and how some of them were still together amazed him even more. They talked about the neighboring town of Independence and how they still rivaled each other in every aspect. They even approached the subject of Nick’s family and Alex filled them in on what had been going on with them. He learned that his mother beat breast cancer three years ago, and that his father was just starting his third term as mayor. Alex also told him about Kevin and Kristin and agreed with Jessica that she seemed to be pretty sweet, but she was from New Orleans and none of them really knew much about her. Before Nick realized it, they had been there for three hours talking away. If Nick wanted to see his parents today, he would have to leave soon.

“I hate to do this man, but I’ve gotta get going. I wanna get out to my parents house before dark. I don’t know how good I will do on the little country roads after living in the city for so long.”

“Yea, no problem man. It is good to see you. I am glad you are back.”

“Me too, man. Me too!”

The sky had already begun to change as orange and pink spread across the sky. The sun was peaking above the horizon by about 25 degrees. Nick let his mind wander as he thought of all of his memories from home. He knew that he was about to find out if he had gotten his hopes up about a reunion with his family. His father was a good man, but he had his limits and Nick hoped that he hadn’t reached his yet.

That is when it happened, something he least expected. Something that he had never seen before, but knew immediately what it was. The sound was muffled and far away, but the huge mushroom shaped cloud the billowed high into the sky could only be one thing. The one thing that no one could escape, the one thing that could kill us all. Just as the realization hit him, he was hit.

He was hit head on by a car that must have been looking at the impressive mushroom cloud. Then it was nothing. Nothing at all, just darkness. Inside this darkness though, Nick knew that we, the United States was in trouble.