Chapter 1: Pacific Village

  The year is 2025 and the small coastal suburb of Pacific Village bustled with activity. Cars sped down the street, parent’s were walking through the park with strollers, the trucks made deliveries to the local stores.

  The town was quite small, and located just north of Venice beach and the Santa Monica Pier. There was a highschool in the small town, a large amount of residential houses, and a few small shopping centres. On the edge of the small town, tucked into the border of the national forest, was an abandoned amusement park.

  Thunder Park had been retired in the late 1980’s and had become overgrown with weeds. Occasionally the park would appear in the newspapers as people reflected on the rising costs of rent in Los Angeles suburbs. The retired theme park was closed to the public, most people headed to the Santa Monica Pier instead.

  The waterslides of Thunder Park were drained, the roller coaster tracks had rusted and collapsed in some sections and the haunted train coaster actually looked haunted. Cobwebs covered Thunder Park. The gravel parking lot was chained closed.

  On the other side of the town was Pacific Village High School. The campus was massive, and had many different modern buildings. Inside a senior’s chemistry classroom, the teacher was giving a presentation to a class filled with students.

  “The compounds were combined to create gunpowder, this was first accomplished in the 9th century, by China.” The teacher said sitting in her chair, her eyes kept darting to the screen of her computer, where she was watching a soap opera with subtitles in a small window.

  At the back of the classroom, students were talking to each other quietly.

  “My brother was talking about this place, an abandoned theme park. He reckons it’s a mad spot to bring a girl.” Michael said to his friend Luke. “You should invite Elise.” Mike said with a wink.

  Luke looked across the classroom at a blonde girl. She was Luke's crush and one of his closest friends.

  “Hey Elise,” Luke whispered. She was writing something and didn’t hear, so Luke threw a pencil at her. It hit her on the leg and clattered on the floor. She picked it up and looked behind her.

  “What?” She asked with a curious smile.

  “Come to this theme park with us.” Luke said. “We’re going to the abandoned theme park after class.”

  “The what?” She asked.

  “The abandoned theme park, it’s in the jungle.” Mike whispered.

  “Thunder Park.” Luke said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said.

  “The gunpowder was used in bombs, and then the first guns arrived around twelve hundred AD. They were simple handheld cannons. Write this down guys, it will be on the test.” The teacher said, the characters on her drama show had just kissed passionately on a cliffside.

  Luke opened the Google images search for Thunder Park and started showing her the photos.

  Some retro photos with faded colours had been uploaded, showing the heyday of the park. The walkways were bustling with people dressed in denim outfits and wearing rock band tees. The other newer high resolution photos showed drone footage and explorer photos. The park had lots of graffiti in the pictures.

  “Cool,” Elise said. “I’ll come with you guys.” She handed Luke his phone.

  Luke smiled and looked out the window, waiting for the bell.

  After class, Luke waited in the parking lot for his friends to show up.

  He drove an old pickup. The truck had four wheel drive and a solid body tub. It was dented, and had some paint scratches, but the clear coat was still shiny, and the glossy red paint had not faded.

  Michael arrived with another friend, Matt, a footballer. Elise arrived after that.

  “Glad you’re coming today, Elise. Are you excited?” Luke said, smiling warmly.

  “I don’t know. I literally don’t know.” She said, a little confused by it all.

  Brian, another footballer, and Troy, an african american footballer arrived from the school doors next.

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  “What’s poppin, bitches?” Troy said, dapping up Mike.

  “Bouta get blazed and listen to some D12,” Mike said, pulling out a small bag of weed.

  “Hell yeah,” Troy said, and he pulled out a lighter and started flicking the sparks at people.

  “Yo, you got the bluetooth speaker, Brian?” Matt asked.

  “Bluetooth speaker, right here. Fully charged, and Luke is banned from the Aux.” Brian said, and the whole group of boys laughed.

  “What, why?” Luke asked.

  “Because you play Chicago, bro, and it’s too slow. Listen to this song,” Brian said and started looking through his phone playlists.

  “Chicago is a good fucking band.” Luke said, he looked at Elise and she shrugged. Aint Nuttin But Music by D12 started to blast from Brian’s bluetooth speaker and some passing highschool girls looked at the group of boys in disdain.

  The music spurred on the boys and they started bobbing their bodies to the drum beat.

  “Alright get in guys.” Luke said. “Elise gets to ride shotgun,” He said, and looked in her eyes.

  “Nah, why bro,” Mike said, throwing his body over the door to the passenger side entrance.

  “Mike.” Luke said, and he stared at him with a bizarre face. Mike understood.

  “Whatever, Elise, it’s all yours.” He said, he then opened the rear door and hopped inside.

  “We don’t have enough seats for everyone.” Luke said, doing a headcount.

  “I can take my car,” Brian said. He pointed to a tiny sedan. It had a mismatched colour bumper, but it was fuel economical. “Come on, Black Mamba.” He said, grabbing Troy by the head playfully.

  “Fuck yeah, riding shotgun.” Troy said. They got into the sedan and drove away.

  Luke started his car and loaded up his passengers. They started driving through the small town towards the outskirts.

  They drove for a short time and then arrived at the chained parking lot and parked in the driveway.

  “My service is so bad here,” Elise said, noticing her bars had dropped to almost zero. Her newsfeed had stopped loading on her phone.

  “Oh no, now you have to live in the moment,” Luke joked sarcastically. Luke got out of his car and walked to Brian and Troy. They were standing by the chain. Brian pulled some bolt cutters from the backseat of his car and looked at the assembled teenagers.

  “Ladies and gentlemen.” Brian said confidently, “Let’s go ride some roller coasters.” He clipped the chain and it fell to the ground. The teenagers got back into their cars and drove into the carpark. They parked on the edge of the concrete, close to the forest. The two cars were the only cars in sight. They got out of the cars and locked the doors. They walked towards the gates of the abandoned theme park.

  Troy stopped them.

  “Hey guys, wait,” He said. “I gotta wait for Kayla.”

  “Whipped!” Matt yelled.

  “Hey, at least I’ve got a girlfriend.” Troy said calmly.

  “Yeah but you’re always hanging out with her, you never even go online anymore.” Matt said.

  “Yeah well, I hate that game anyway. I liked the last one way better.” Troy said. “Maybe you need to touch some grass.” The boys laughed.

  They arrived at the locked front gates. They looked like jail bars. They were locked with a short chain. Brian used the bolt cutters again and the boys rolled the gates open.

  “Wait here, Kayla will be here soon.” Troy said.

  “Well, I’m going to start rolling a joint,” Matt said. He pulled out his bag of leaf and inspected it. He had some finely chopped green and a lighter inside.

  He pulled a rolling paper from his pocket and started to make a big jay.

  “Hey, Elise, did you listen to that song that I sent?” Luke asked.

  “Which one?” She responded.

  “It’s the link I sent you last night.” He said.

  “I’ll look at it now.” She pulled out her phone and started to open her messages.

  “It’s alright, just look at it later.” He smiled. “What are you doing this weekend, anyways?”

  “Probably just stay at home and not do my chemistry assignment.” She said, “It’s not like I’m going to be a scientist.”

  “I’m almost finished with mine, I can send it to you and you can copy it but change the words.”

  “Maybe,” she said, “so how long are we staying here?”

  “Maybe nine or maybe ten?” Luke said. “We normally go to a park and smoke and listen to music. Then we walk to the burger place for some snacks.”

  “Are we going to get in trouble?” She asked.

  “Nah, not at all,” Luke said, “We’re highschool kids, Mike’s brother brings his girlfriend here all the time. I don’t think this place has tough security, they just don’t care at all.”

  “Ok well, could you take me home if it gets too late?” Elise said. She was unsure whether she should be there.

  “Definitely.” He said, smiling at her.

  A small light blue hatchback car rolled into the parking lot and parked next to the other cars. Kayla got out of the car. She was a blonde girl with fake nails and she was dressed in jeans, and a singlet under Troy’s oversized letterman highschool jacket.

  “Hi baby!” She squealed. She wandered over to the group, kissed Troy on the lips and they started making out. Everyone else rolled their eyes and they all started walking inside the abandoned park.