Sun Chasers

By Eddie Abraham

On one hot Summer Camp, Aiden Rainer, a 12th grade Senior student was having the time of his life enjoying his last Summer Camp before he goes to college. Unbeknownst to him, a deadly virus that has been going around in the news for the past couple of months has finally reached New York all the way from a small city in Asia.

Nothing was more shocking than when he and his friends found out someone in the camp was infected. The Summer Camp quickly turned into chaos when the disease breaks out. Having to fend off for his life, Aiden and his friends fought and fled back to the city of New York only to find the aftermath of a deadly virus outbreak. Now desolate, the remains of the city of New York now became a nest for an unforgiving horde of infected.

In the search for other survivor, Aiden and his friends witness that with the fall of society and order, lawlessness begin to consume what’s left of humanity. Instead of banding together and helping each other, different groups of people started to emerge with different goals and shows hostility towards each other.

While almost falling prey to one of them, Aiden and his friends ran across a group of mysterious people who saved their lives and claimed that they were looking for a safe haven. However, they soon discovered the deadly virus spread through water and rain, and found out they have been infected too.

With the race against time, Aiden learns an antidote has been discovered and set out to search for them. Little did he knows that he has to cross paths with the ‘Sun Chasers’, a group of infamous and notorious people who would do anything to obtain the antidote, otherwise known as the ‘Sun’.

The journey Aiden and his friends set out for proved to be more than dangerous and impossible when they are forced to face the terrifying creatures and deadly mindless ghouls on one side and a mysterious group of elite soldiers who seemed to know something they don’t, on the other side.

Discovering truths and lies among his new friends, Aiden learns that the virus and the outbreak isn’t what it seemed to be. Conspiracies, rumors, and truths begin to unfold and revealed a stunning and shocking truth about the catastrophe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Apr 3, 2023

Book preview

written by Eddie Abraham.

Book 1

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 The Beginning

Chapter 2 It Rains

Chapter 3 Absolute Fear

Chapter 4 Resolve and Promise

Chapter 5 Back to Civilization..?

Chapter 6 The Aftermath

Chapter 7 Chasers

Chapter 8 Iron and Blood

Chapter 9 Death’s Stare

Chapter 10 Factions

Chapter 11 A Glitter of Hope

Chapter 12 Raid

Chapter 13 Lurking Shadow

Chapter 14 Global Resource Initiative Management.

Chapter 15 Impending Disaster

Chapter 16 Enigma

Copyright © 2022 Eddie Abraham.

All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 1 The Beginning

There was a loud noise.. and the ground shook.. smoke everywhere, and dirt raining down.. I tried to get up, but I could not bring myself to.. my legs feel like they’re broken, even moving them takes all I have, my left hand and my ribs feel like they were crushed, breathing was hard.. my right hand is the only thing I can move even though it almost feels broken and my ears are ringing. It took a few seconds for my head to stop spinning and for me to realise the loud noise from before was a c4 explosion which had sent me flying and made me feel like I just woke up from a crazy hangover, just ten times worse.

As I layed on the ground, rain started drizzling.. NO, it is raining! It all comes back to me, the explosion just caused all the dirt around to fly up in the air and for a moment it was raining dirt instead of.. rain. I had just realised that the rain is what caused all of this, everything’s changed after the rain.. it is bad, so it’s obvious that I need to get out of here right now, but I just couldn’t move. So I stayed still.. I looked up into the sky, rain’s pouring down on me, the ringing in my ears started to clear up, and I started to hear screams, and loud roaring, almost as if there were a bunch of lions and other wild animals roaring and screeching around me. 

Strangely enough, it didn’t scare me nor did it phase me like it used to.. well, other than the fact that I am near my deathbed, it all feels very familiar, just like when this all started, in that summer camp I was so excited about.

It was the summer of 2020, I was in my final year of high school, and I plan to enjoy every last moment before I go to college. I went to a school which is famous for its diversity. From what I learned thanks to the school orientation, we have more than forty different ethnicities, and a couple of thousand of students. We blend in very well though, despite all kinds of boundaries and limitations. 

The summer camp was just around the corner, and it was always fun every year. This year is supposed to be the most exciting yet. Other than the fact that this is our last year, which means this is our last summer camp, this year the students get to organise the whole camp. We chose Allegany State Park in New York for our campsite, we planned the whole summer camp activity, and trust me this year’s summer camp is gonna be unforgettable. 

Plus if it all goes well, I might have my chance to get close to Lizzie. Lizzie is one of my classmates, she is a sweet girl, born and raised in New York, with long blonde hair, thin slender body that looks like a model despite being only 5 ft 4. She has a beautiful voice, and she is really nice to everyone. I’ve known her since our freshmen’s year, but we rarely talk. I just thought that if I’d ever get close to her, this year’s got to be it.

It’s the first day of our summer camp, we have just arrived at our campsite, the accommodation was sorted out, we got dorm rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. As we began to move our stuff from the school bus to the dorms I noticed Lizzie across our bus, beautiful figure and fair skin, her wavy blonde hair captivated me. She is going back and forth looking all confused beside the girls’ dorm room. I quickly looked around, and made sure her friends were not around. I was getting nervous and I was elated when I noticed no one was around her, and I thought to myself this is my chance!. I gulped and clenched my hand as I pushed myself forward towards her, and it took me all I have to ask her:

Hey, it’s been sometime since we last talked, you look great! I awkwardly greeted her.

Hey, thanks for the compliment.. you look great too! she paused for a moment.. I take it you’re not here just to compliment me? she replied, with the brightest and most beautiful smile I ever saw.

Yeah, no.. I just.. I just saw you walking back and forth looking all confused, so I thought you might need some help, I said, trying not to be creepy.

Lizzie giggled and said, I was just looking for Miss Diana, she is supposed to supervise the girls and share the room with us, but I just couldn’t find her. I thought she was still in the bus, or that she might be helping the girls to get their stuff off of the bus, but it seems she is nowhere to be foun.., ..right before she could finish what she was saying, Trevor and Danny snuck up and jumped behind me.. BOOOO!!.

I jumped, my heart almost burst out of my chest. Lizzie giggled again, 

It’s nice to see you, guys! she greeted Trevor and Danny, 

Go on, we have just finished catching up. I’ll be going, I still need to go look for Miss Diana, see you guys around, she said as she headed to the dorm room. 

I responded immediately, Do you need help? I don’t mind helping you to look for her!.

Lizzie started running, and shouted whilst looking back.. it’s okay! I’ll look for her myself, you guys have fun!.

I turned to Trevor and Danny, and punched their stomach out of frustration and said.. 

DO YOU GUYS REALLY NEED TO DO THAT?? Didn’t you see that I was talking to Lizzie?? That was a chance of a lifetime!. 

Trevor started chuckling, brushing my punch as if it was nothing. I did hold back a little, but I was quite confident that would at least knock him back a little. Danny reacted way too much.. He was holding his stomach and his face turns red. I didn’t punch him a little too hard.. right..? 

I always treated them the same, and I often forget Danny is not as strong and as muscular as Trevor. But I’m sure Danny will forgive me for punching his stomach, they started this, that was a rare chance to talk to Lizzie! Besides, Danny is one of my best friends, we’ve known each other ever since elementary school. 

Danny is a really nice guy, he was born and raised here, just like me. He didn’t have a big posture. Even though he was only 5 ft 6, he weighs around 95 kg. He needs a little exercise I know, but Danny’s got a big heart. Plus, he’s a redhead.

And then there’s Trevor, the Captain of the Basketball Team, he’s African American, we’ve been best buddies way before we met Danny. Trevor has been very athletic ever since he was a kid, I was pretty sure I’m taller than him when we first met, but Trevor grew up to be surprisingly big. He’s 6 ft 6, his body looks like a rock wall and muscular, and he’s very good with sports. He’s very popular in school, and he’s actually nice. 

Trevor notices Danny’s face gone a little too red and quickly helps him up, putting Danny’s arms around his shoulder, which makes them look like a chair with a broken leg, rocking back and forth because Trevor is way too tall for Danny. Looking at them like that, I burst out laughing, and they started to burst out laughing too. I was mad at them, but they are my best friends, that’s what best friends do, we annoy each other. We brushed it off, and then headed to the dorm room together.

We have just finished unpacking our stuff in the dorms, and we were asked to head out to the lake right by our campsite. It was afternoon, and it was time for lunch. The school has arranged the students’ meals with the campsite, and so our lunch was served. I looked around and hoped that I might catch a glimpse of Lizzie apart from the crowd. I went back and forth in the middle of the crowd for a good five minutes before I finally spotted Lizzie on a bench with the other top students a few feets away. Before I noticed, Trevor and Danny snuck up on me again, but carefully this time.. as they do not want to mess with my fist again, or to accidentally make me spill my food.

Hey we’ve been following you around for like ten minutes, you sure look like an idiot. Danny whispers.

Ouch, I was surprised. Why didn’t any of you call out to me if you’ve been following me, anyway? I asked.

Trevor pulled out his hand around my ear to whisper We’ve been meaning to, but it seemed like our friend here is lost in love! Trevor snickered and then laughed uncontrollably.

I shouted in my whisper, You might as well say that out loud bud! Everybody can hear you. I said, knowing that a lot of girls have been following Trevor around since he’s so popular. Trevor continued laughing and Danny joined in. I'm even more embarrassed now.

We finally found an empty bench, we sat down, and started digging through our meals. We were sitting facing the lake, and I would be lying if I say I didn’t enjoy the view. It was a sunny afternoon, the weather’s nice, it’s not too hot, it’s warm, it’s a little windy and the air is a little chilly. The view was magnificent, our dorms are facing one of the two lakes in the campsite. The campground is in the middle between the dorms and a lake, filled with fresh-cut grass and a whole lot of benches that surprisingly fit over two hundred students. The campground was about the size of three basketball courts, with a huge round empty space in the middle without grass, which I assumed is where we would gather woods and make fire. The lake I was facing spread over a few football fields, with mountains full of trees.

Trevor, Danny and I were chatting, we were already on our to do lists for the summer. As we were chatting, we could hear some students talking about rumors that had been going around about a mysterious disease that had recently made the headline. 

Apparently, there was some footage that spread across social media. The footage shows people presumably infected with the disease developed strange behaviours. They would be standing still for a few minutes before collapsing while crossing the road, some suffered from sudden loss of thought before fainting, others coughing blood, or experienced nosebleeds. 

The symptoms are very similar to normal flu before it develops further. No one, not even the WHO (World Health Organisation) has any idea. The problem is, the mysterious disease that first started in one of the cities in China, has now spread over other nearby countries. This of course took the internet by storm and caused a lot of rumours going around. The news here aren’t really sure on how to respond to these rumours, the best they can do was to advise parents to watch over their children, both for their health and from the rumours.

We were caught listening and discussing about the rumours ourselves by the three people that suddenly approached our table,

Hey guys, we must be really lucky to be able to sit with the three of you, one of them said with a smug face. 

Well well, look who do we have here, Aiden Rainer, Trevor Jacob, and Daniel William. Glad you guys saved some space for us. The other one said.

They are the Double Trouble, as we’d like to call them. Andrew, Zac, and Tom; they are basically smart bullies, they are among the top ten students, but they also have very bad behaviours. They like to bully people, but they let their lackeys take the blame for them. Kind of like politicians in the making if you ask me. 

I never had any problem with them, nor did Trevor and Danny, but I recently heard that Andrew, the smartest, and best looking out of the three is trying to hit on Lizzie!

Hey, so what brings you guys here? Trevor asked. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of empty benches over there, no reason for you guys to come and sit with us. He continued.

What’s with the cold welcome, Trevor? We’re just trying to chat with you guys a little.. you know since it’s our last year, there’s no better time. Zac scoffs.

Well, that’s nice of you to come here, I heard we would have to make a group of six later, this means we already found our group! Danny excitedly exclaimed.

There was a pause for a moment, I think even the Double Trouble wouldn’t know how to react to what Danny just said. They didn’t come with good intentions. Danny didn’t know that, he’s just too pure, he’s got a big heart. On the other hand, Trevor and I both knew them very well.

Oh, that would be a good idea Danny, then we would be able to enjoy the rest of our summer getting to know each other. I said.

Yeah, I heard there are gonna be a lot of physical activities, it’s perfect for an all boys group. Trevor continued.

Flustered, Tom replied Oh, no.. we actually already have a group. We would love to be able to be in a group with the three of you, but unfortunately we were booked.

Yeah.. besides, you know what? It can’t be an all boys or all girls group. We got to mix! ..right guys? Zac stuttered.

Both Trevor and I snickered and gave each other a look, 

Really? That’s too bad. But don’t worry Danny, we’ll surely find enough people for our group. Trevor said to Danny. 

Danny looked a little surprised by the sudden and quick answer from both Tom and Zac.

Andrew clears his throat and says, Well yeah, that was too bad Danny. Maybe next time if you are quick enough; then you could at least make it in time to get in line. 

Can you believe that!? Who’d say that? I almost forgot that Andrew is an over confident self-centred guy. I caught a glance of Trevor about to swing his fist, but before he could swing it, Danny asked with a very confused tone and look, What line?.

We all looked at Danny, and I suddenly felt relieved, Danny didn’t catch on Andrew’s chaff. A fight could have break out if it wasn’t for Danny. I know Trevor, he’s a gentle guy, but he’s even more of a loyal friend, there is no way he would just stay silent about something like that.

I glanced back at Andrew, he was stiff.. his hands ready in front of him, he looked like he was about to jump out of his seat. Andrew is a bully, a troublesome one at that, and he’s a prick. But at only 5 ft 10 and a scrawny body, there is no way he could stand a chance against Trevor, should Trevor choose to throw his fist at Andrew just now. You would need at least five guys just to hold him back.

Andrew quickly put his hands away and clears his throat again and said, Anyway, I just want to talk to my friend Aiden here, and give him a little word of advice; that he shouldn’t be thinking or even try to use this summer camp as a chance to get close to Lizzie, or... before he could finish his sentence, Trevor snapped and said:

OR WHAT? with a very low and angry tone.

Andrew startled and responded, Or that he will.. Might be disappointed when.. If Lizzie didn’t respond nicely to.. or like how Aiden expected. 

He continued, Anyway, I’m just concerned, I just thought I’d need to give him a little word of wisdom before.. you know, he shrugs his head. 

That’s all, see you all around. The three of them quickly jumped out of their seats and left in a hurry.

Both Trevor and I burst out laughing the moment our eyes met. We had just scared the school’s biggest bully and chased them away with their tails between their legs. We had a year’s worth of laughs, and totally forgot Danny was still clueless, to which he responded:

What are you guys laughing around for? while raising his eyebrows, 

he continued, I really wish you guys could fill me in on that, but don’t we have even more pressing matters? Danny asked.

Trevor and I stopped laughing, we rubbed the tears out of our eyes and jokingly asked Danny, 

Oh come on, that was good. What are you worrying about?

Danny breathed heavily with disappointment,

Really guys? Come on, give their words a little more thought.. how would they know Aiden has a crush on Lizzie!? he raised his voice as he was talking.

I quickly threw my hand and covered Danny’s mouth and said, Shhhhh! Everyone can hear you!

Danny looked at me dead in the eye and shouted some gibberish while waving both his hands around me. I quickly responded:

I know I know! I couldn’t hear what he was shouting about, but I understand full well what he intended to say. I quickly realised how serious this is. Nobody should have known that!

As I was thinking and panicking about it, Trevor put his hand on my shoulder and calmly said, 

Maybe, it’s for your own good. You didn’t know how to approach her. But suddenly everyone knew you had a crush on her. This could be good. Don’t worry about it too mu.. before Trevor finished his sentence, I yelled at him:

ARE YOU CRAZY!? HOW can this be good?" 

Trevor pulled his finger in front of him and said,

Shhh, you’re too loud. Well, unless you want to draw more attention to yourself, you better keep it down.

How can I!? I said, I’ll approach her at my own pace, not like this. I added.

Before any of us could say anything more, the teachers made an announcement using a blow horn. The teachers instructed us to finish our meal in the next five minutes and gather around on the pier by the lake, and we will be grouped randomly into groups of six. I could see the disbelief on the faces of the students when the teachers mentioned that, and I kind of cheered a little knowing the Double Trouble would be devastated by that. But I was also frustrated thinking that I couldn’t spend the rest of the summer camp with my two best friends. The Summer Camp hasn’t even started!

Before we knew it, we were already gathering around the pier by the lake. We were preparing gears for Canoeing activities and making sure all of the equipments are still in good condition and safe to use. The girls are applying sunscreen, and the teachers are checking in on the students, making sure no one is left behind or slipped away; when suddenly the thunder roars softly in the sky. I quickly looked up, as everyone did.

The sky was gloomy, it was dark, the wind blew a little harder than before, the air was chilly. It was summer, but it sure doesn’t look like one. Normally we would be enjoying the summer camp with cold drinks and ice cream since the hot air will suck every ounce of energy in your body. That is also why we decided to start the summer camp with water activities before anything else. But it looks like this summer will turn out differently than the ones before.

After discussing with the other teachers, Mr. Kim, our Maths Teacher, made an announcement. The teachers have decided that we will be continuing our activities according to the schedule, and only stop and rearrange the activities if the weather gets worse. So we were getting ready and were grouped randomly. Both Trevor and Danny got into group four together, and I got unlucky and put in group twelve all by myself. What a terrible start!

We begin the Summer Camp activities with Canoe Sprint; it’s a canoe race! It will be a group race, we are going to race to the designated finish line with 8 groups at once. The first 8 groups started the sprint and the atmosphere brightened up. We were cheering and shouting, encouraging our friends to put everything they have into the sprint. 

Group 4 won the sprint with no surprise. The teachers were worked up and realised they had made a mistake putting Trevor and 3 other student-athletes in the same group as a joke, thinking they wouldn’t be able to work together since they are all from different sports teams and none of them do water sports. I’m pretty sure the teachers forgot that this is not the first time we have a canoe sprint in our summer camp, besides they have really underestimated the athletes ability to adapt quickly.

We were getting ready for the second sprint, but one of my groupmates still hasn’t shown up. I heard Sherly suddenly fell ill, she was supposed to be in group twelve with us, but she wasn’t feeling well, so her parents came to pick her up right before the canoe sprint started. With one empty space in our group, the teachers tried to come up with something. And after several considerations, they decided to put Lizzie into our group! Lizzie was supposed to be one of the student organisers; she was supposed to help the teachers arrange and prepare for the summer camp activities. Student organisers usually have their plates full, and wouldn’t be able to participate in any activities, but since our team is now handicapped, the teachers have picked her to replace Sherly.

I was surprised by the decision, and I was overjoyed! The thought of having a chance to spend the rest of the summer camp in a group with Lizzie, blew my mind. I immediately looked over to Trevor and Danny, and they were as excited as I was; they put both of their thumbs up and winked at me. That was their sign of approval. I just know that I have to take this chance and use it wisely. 

Lizzie walks over to our group, she has the brightest smile, full of energy, and she immediately encourages everyone. We immediately got