Undead_Lives
New Member
First off, I'd like to say that this story was designed to be a storyline for a video game (specifically an RPG), and you might see that as it develops.
I'm going to post the first two chapters. Yes they are short. But they are just the completion of the first of 17 points on my storyline checklist (not including epilogue). And it's the shortest point.
Without further ado, here you go.
*Update* I'm on point 6 of 16 (not 17) with the recent addition of chapters.
<div align="center">The Right to Live</div>
<div align="center">Chapter One</div>
I opened my eyes and came to the realization that I was alive. The dream I just had was gone, but I remember it as being shocking to me. Like it was…true reality. I shook my head. I don’t even remember what it was about. So it couldn’t have been important.
“Mom?” I shouted as I walked out of my bedroom.
“Yes dear?” she replied.
“What’s for breakfast?” I asked as I came into the kitchen where my mother was. My mother was a beautiful woman, slender, yet not skinny, with a perfect face and perfect complexion. She even had perfect brown hair.
“French toast dear,” my mother replied with a smile.
“Great, I’m starved.”
Our house was a large house, or so I was told. It had three floors, not including a basement. My room was on the top floor, while the kitchen was on the middle. My game room was on the bottom floor, and I had never been to the basement.
In fact, I had never been outside. I never had need to. All my daily enjoyments were provided inside this house. My mother was here, and so was my father. Well, my father wasn’t here now, because he was at work.
When my mom finished the meal, she served it to me. I ate it quickly, as I really was starving. When I had finished, a part of me felt full, yet another did not. I had come to realize that this was a normal feeling.
Today I decided to play video games. I wore a special head device that allowed me to play as a character in a virtual world. I was almost done the game.
As I was playing, I reflected on my life. Sure, I didn’t go outside, but that was normal because it wasn’t safe outside. Besides, mommy cooked for me and I got to do whatever I wanted inside the house. I loved my mother, and she loved me more. I couldn’t think of what I would do without her.
By the end of the day, I still hadn’t beaten the game, and a part of me still didn’t feel full. But I went to bed anyways, thinking that I could get full and beat the game in the morning. So I went to bed, my mother tucked me in, and I fell asleep.
<div align="center">Chapter Two</div>
I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. I was having the same dream again. But the dream was still blurry, like I could almost see it but something was missing.
I realized that I had never been around my house in the middle of the night. Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to explore.
The house wasn’t creepy at all; in fact it was still peaceful even in the dark. I then heard something creak; it seemed to come from downstairs. But I was on the lowest level, how could that be? Of course, it must have come from the basement. Since I was in a curious mood, I decided to check out another thing I had never seen, the basement.
The basement was accessed using a door that was on the floor. Strange, I know, but I was told that this was how most basements were accessed.
I went down to the door, and then stopped. I remembered that my mother told me never to open this door. But this was just part of our house, which was tranquil. It couldn’t be harmful. So I decided to open it, but I had no idea what awaited on the other side.
There was a blinding white light that seemed to consume my basement. There were a few stairs, which I started to walk down. When I was at the bottom and my eyes had adjusted, they opened wide while my jaw dropped as I beheld something unimaginable.
I was inside some kind of sphere, and I was on the bottom. The stairs that led to my house led to a transparent cube that I realized was my house. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My palms got clammy, my heartbeat was racing and I didn’t even know why. I dashed back into the house to make sure this wasn’t a dream.
When I got back into my house, it suddenly started to fade! It was like a screen that was turning to static, slowly my house disappeared. And then only the transparent cube was left.
“What happened? What’s going on? Mom? Dad? Where are you? What is happening?”
“The experiment has realized the illusion. Subdue him and then we shall restart the data analysis.”
“What? Who is that? Who is the experiment?”
Just then two men that wore some kind of armor walked in. They were carrying weapons, guns.
“Just don’t move, and everything will be fine.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“Restart.”
“Where’s my mother?”
“She isn’t real. She was just a computer program to help us with you, the experiment.”
“I’m what?! An experiment!”
“That’s right. Now sit still and this will all be over.”
My mother wasn’t real. Everything I knew, loved, wasn’t real. Suddenly it all made sense. The dreams, not being able to go outside or into the basement, which wasn’t a basement at all, all these things were because none of this actually existed.
Suddenly I had an emotion I had never experienced. Anger, mixed in with hate, anguish and despair. All of this emotion bubbled forth inside of me, and then I felt it.
It was an immense source of power that came from within me. My emotions triggered it, and it was about to release. I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t even know it existed until now, so how could I possibly know how to control it?
The power was engulfing my body, and I began to glow. My senses stopped working. I could only faintly use them. I faintly heard the desperate shouts of the two men, and the terror in their eyes.
Finally, the power was released, and then everything went black.
<div align="center">Chapter Three</div>
I came back to the world, with no feeling anywhere. The world was black, but there was something. I could hear voices faintly, as if they were out of my reach to comprehend. I struggled to hear them. Finally after some amount of time, I could.
“He’s been out for a while, think he’ll make it?” said a mysterious voice, a man’s voice.
“I’m quite confident he’ll recover, he just needs some rest,” said another unknown voice, a woman’s.
Were they talking about me?
“It doesn’t seem possible that he could have survived a blast like that,” said the man.
“Unless he created it,” replied the woman.
That’s all I heard, because before I knew it, sleep took me over.
The next time I regained consciousness, I was able to see. What I saw shocked me.
The room was nothing like my house, or my former house that is. In fact it was almost the exact opposite. Where my former house (I had to keep reminding myself of that) was tranquil, this place was chaos. Where my former house was white and clean, this place was dirty beyond means. I was kind of glad my sense of smell hadn’t returned yet, and I didn’t look forward to the moment it returned.
I noticed that no one was around. “Where am I?” I thought.
“You’re in what once was a hospital.”
I looked around, and sitting in a chair beside my bed was a rough-looking man. He also looked extremely tough, not a person to meet at night. He had short blonde hair, and a small moustache. He wore a torn dark green shirt, and khakis. His arms were as thick as my thighs.
“Did I say that out loud?” I asked.
“No.”
“Can you read my mind?”
He laughed. It was then that I realized he had the same voice as the man I heard before. This must be him I heard.
“Then…”
“It’s a question every person who wakes up in some place they’ve never been before.”
“Oh, I guess it is. Who are you?”
“My name is Buck McLennon. And what’s your name?”
I had to think. Did I have a name? I couldn’t remember my mother calling my by a name. Was that even my mother? I realized that she wasn’t. None of my past was real. It was all an illusion.
“I…don’t have a name.”
“Don’t have a name? You’ve got to have a name!” said Buck.
“I guess I’ll have to think of one.”
“I guess you will, but for now we’ll call you New Guy. That ok with you?”
“Sure, I guess.”
“Good. Now I’ll get Sarah for ya. Just wait here, and don’t move. Be back in a flash.”
I nodded, saying I understood. Buck left the room. One thing I didn’t get was why I wasn’t allowed to move. Maybe it was because I was a prisoner. Or maybe it was because I was an experiment.
I decided to try and get up anyway. Immediately I felt pain all over my body. So that’s why I wasn’t supposed to move.
I realized that because all I ever knew was an illusion, I knew nothing. Well, I knew the extreme basics. But as for this world, I might as well be an alien. An alien that had no idea how he got here, wherever here was.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” I said.
The most beautiful woman I had ever seen walked right in. Now, technically I had never seen any other women before, just a fake representation, but she was still beautiful. How, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know why my heart was pounding.
She had long, straight red hair that came down to her shoulders. She was average height, and had a slim figure. She wore tight jeans that were torn in many places, and a tight shirt that seemed as though it hadn’t been washed in a week.
“Hey there,” she said.
“Hi.”
“My name is Sarah Betward. Do you know why you are here?”
“I don’t even know where here is.”
“Ah, then I guess I’ll have to start there. Listen up, because this is a crash course on our world.
“We are currently living in the city called Mitinar. After the Global Warming Crisis, or the GWC as we call it, Mitinar was one of the only cities left standing, and that’s because it was built of three different levels, ground level, mid level, and the top. It was built to reach the skies, which it nearly did. Mitinar stands higher than some mountains.
“During the GWC, mankind had to survive. After a while, a select few people began running a military, supposedly designed to help in times of disaster. The military did fulfill that, for a while.
“For thirty years thunderstorms, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, torrential rain ransacked the entire earth. Billions of lives were lost.
“When the GWC finally ceased, and the skies became calm enough for people to see the sun for more than two days, mankind began to rebuild. There were only about seven million people who survived, or so it was estimated. The world began anew.
“Cities were forged in places where any kind of shelter still remained. Mitinar was one of the only cities in the entire earth that managed to stay mostly intact. Seventy years have passed since the GWC ended.
“Since there were so few people on the earth, there were no longer countries, only cities that were run by a President and his military. In Mitinar we are no different, save for one thing.
“As I said before the city consists of three levels. These three levels served as dividers of the classes, lower, middle and upper. This is truly an unfair and completely unjust way of ruling things.
“However, the President does not see it that way. And so he uses his military to keep people in line, in order, and on the right level. Most people that were on the ground level were likely to dislike this, so he found a way to remove any threat from them.
“He took away all of the technology that the people of the ground level had. That way his military could run things on the ground level easily, as they are the only ones with weapons. That was when the rebellion started.
“It is an organization that is fighting the unjust distinction between peoples. No one is allowed to go to a different level. Even the mid level people are kept in check, with the use of cameras and listening devices that are everywhere.
“We are currently on the ground level. I am part of the rebellion. Most of the people on this level are. And we are determined to bring the President down.”
This was all a little much for me to take in. I didn’t know what to say, or even think. It was like the world was slowly pushing down on me, crushing me.
“I think I need some time to take this all in,” I said.
“That’s understandable. I’ll be by to see you in a little while.”
“Can you tell me…”
“What?”
“Well, what I am, exactly.”
“All in due time. Now get some rest.”
She then handed me some kind of green liquid in a glass. I drank it reluctantly, and for good reason. It was the worse thing I had ever tasted in my life.
She left the room. As I lay there, my thoughts were centered on my recently acquired knowledge of this world. Soon those thoughts faded, and the pressure of the world eased up on me. Finally my thoughts slipped to the beautiful woman that came to my room to tell me a story, a story that was the reality in which I lived in. With that, I fell asleep, even though I had no idea whether it was day or night.
<div align="center">Chapter Four</div>
When I woke up, there was a man I had never seen before standing beside my bed, looking down on me. He had greasy black hair (that really needed a comb), was quite tall, and he was pretty thin. He wore a long black jacket, dark blue pants, a black shirt, and had a black hat on. He looked at me so that I could see his eyes. They were a light blue color, so they literally looked like ice. I was beginning to wonder if he was friend or foe.
“’Bout time you woke up,” he said.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“My name is Trefdale, most people call me Tred.”
“No last name?” I asked as I cocked an eyebrow.
“I heard you don’t even have a name,” he said right back at me, with a voice as unfeeling as a rodent is to a stick.
I struggled with what to say next. I was extremely uncomfortable, but “Tred” seemed to be at complete ease. So with nothing else to do, I asked the only question I had been wondering about.
“Do you know who or what I am?”
“That’s what I’m here to tell you about. Before I do though, just realize it isn’t a pretty story, so be prepared.”
“I’ve lived my entire life in an illusion, and just broke out of it. I don’t think things can get much worse.”
“But for what reason were you living in an illusion? That’s what can make it worse.” He said all of his words as cold as ice.
I took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
“Good. Now here’s your story.”
“When the GWC ended and the military began to take a more enforcing role, there was an interest in using today’s technology to create a perfect soldier, a soldier that had undergone genetic alterations to make him stronger, faster, and better than any normal human. And so the experiments began.
“At first it was just on volunteers. But when the experiments started failing and people started dying, the volunteers stopped coming in. And so the military began searching for infants, so the genes could be more easily modified, and then grow on their own.
“The experiments didn’t fail. But after the word got out of the failed experiments got out, the President was forced to shut down the production. And so the experiments ended.
“But what were the scientist to do with the experiments? They couldn’t dispose of them; after all they were human beings. So they decided to raise them, and use them for data analysis.
“You were one of those experiments, one of the last. That’s your story.” He said it so bluntly it hit me like a hammer. I was an experiment, nothing more than a few men’s creation.
“You’re not alone though. Remember Sarah? She was also an experiment. You can talk to her if you want to talk at all.”
“Wait, there’s something else I need to know.”
“Shoot.”
“How did I end up here?”
“Oh ya, I forgot about that. Right, now how much do you remember?”
“I remember a power inside, and then thunder, and then nothing.”
“So you remember thunder. Do you know what that thunder was?”
“No, I was hoping you could tell me that,” I said quite frankly.
“Well for your information, it was your power. You have the ability to manipulate electricity, specifically lightning.”
My jaw dropped, lower than it had ever dropped in my life.
“I have the power to control lightning?”
“Didn’t I just say that? Yes, you control lightning. And it was your lightning that destroyed an entire factory, and almost killed you. But that usually happens when your power first awakes.”
“Usually happens?”
“Well it’s either that, or you actually kill yourself. You’re lucky to be alive right now.”
I didn’t feel very lucky. I was in an unknown world, with people I had never seen before until now, with unknown powers and I didn’t know squat about much else. Fine mess I was in.
Tred moved closer to me and said, “It was the President and his subjects that did this to you. That’s precisely who we’re fighting. If you’re interested, you can join us, and get back at the bastards that did this to you. It’s your choice though, you can always rot here as well.”
“I need some time to think first.”
He shrugged. “Sure, whatever. Get some sleep, cause when you wake up, you’ll finally be able to move around. I’ll leave you to your thoughts.”
I was silent as he walked out of my room and closed the door. Just before I fell asleep, I was thinking about how I’m an experiment, nothing more than a guinea pig. Suddenly I felt a strong emotion for the President, something I had never felt before. It was hatred.
<div align="center">Chapter Five</div>
When I woke up again, breakfast was already waiting for me. It was some kind of greenish-brownish soup along with partly stale bread. After two days of eating this meal, I hadn’t figured out what I tasted in the soup.
Suddenly the door burst open and a head popped in. It was a man whose clothes and hair suggested that he hadn’t seen a bath in weeks. He was ragged, unshaven, and had a funny smell about him. However, he had a smile on that seemed as though it had never left his face.
“Oh good, you’re awake. That means I didn’t disturb you. My name’s Weeka Maunt, at your service.”
I was a little surprised, so all I could get out was, “Uh…hi.”
“So, you’re one of them human experiments, aren’t ya?”
“Yes, I guess I am.”
“Ah well don’t worry about it too much. Not like you’re gonna die of some infection or mutate. They experimented on animals before humans you know, and that already happened. That’s why outside the camp there are all sorts of weird beasts you could run into. So be a little careful out there, it’s not you’re nice and jolly nature walk anymore.”
“Oh, good to know.”
“But you don’t have to worry about them, right? Nah, you’ve got amazing abilities. So don’t sweat this small stuff. Once you get control, you’ll walk all over ’em.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“No problem. Hey, tell ya what. Anytime you need anything, just give me a holler. If I can’t help you, then I’ll find someone who can. Will that work for you?”
“Yes, thanks very much.”
“Hey, no problem. Oh, and apparently you’re allowed to get up now. Which means, you can probably stand up without sending a fiery pain up your spine.” And with that, he walked out the door. He sure was a strange character.
I decided that I should try to stand up and walk. I was still sore all over (and I mean all over) but I did manage to stand. Walking was a little more painful, and I had to use the wall or some object that I could lean on to keep my balance. I was soon out the door.
The hallway looked as though it was completely deserted; however it wasn’t. As I walked along it, I ran into another person I had never seen before, another woman. Her beauty stopped my heart for over five seconds.
She was the very essence of beauty, long blonde hair that went past her shoulders, a perfect complexion, her eyes, nose and mouth were all perfect, and her body was thin, but not skinny. For some reason I couldn’t keep my eyes off her chest, but that could have been because her red shirt had a very low neck, and was very tight. She wore a pink skirt that came down to the middle of her thighs. She was very well kept; this was obvious because her clothes were so clean and tidy.
“Hello, my name’s Rose Windfall. Are you the one who was rescued?” she said, a voice that was heavenly.
“Um, yes I guess that’s me.”
“I was told to give you this,” she said as she handed me a cane.
“But, I’m not old, I don’t need this.”
“It’s not just for the old silly, it’s also for the impaired. And you young man are definitely impaired.” I thought about that, and decided she was right. I took the cane.
“Well have fun looking around. If you find that you can’t go on, just sit down. Someone will eventually find you.” With that, she walked off. I kept looking on at her, and her swagger was hypnotizing. When she turned a corner and went out of sight, I came back to reality.
As I kept walking, I was thinking about how beautiful Rose was. But for some reason, I still felt as though Sarah was more beautiful. I finally decided to leave that thinking until later, after all I was just learning about this world, I had no time for women.
With the help of my newly acquired (and greatly appreciated) cane, I finally got outside. I was unprepared for the sight, and smell, of it all.
I had never seen so much junk. It was everywhere! People left anything and everything around them and didn’t even care. I looked around, and didn’t find a single spot that was junk free. The ground was no longer ground; you couldn’t even see the dirt because it was so over-filled with junk.
And the smell, oh it was overwhelming! So many smells all at once, and none of them good. It was like people had trapped the world’s worst smells and placed them all here to grow and flourish. I held my nose closed and breathed through my mouth as I walked on.
I walked through what looked like a camp. The only way I could tell was that there was a fire in a barrel, and some kind of material as a shelter held up by a couple of poles. The rest of the area looked exactly the same as the surrounding areas.
As I kept walking on, I went through a practice range. I decided to stop for a bit and catch my breath. The “practice range” was a shooting range that was basically an abandoned warehouse that had painted boxes lined up at different ranges. The boxes were painted to look like a person-the target.
There was only one person practicing. It was a woman, short brown hair, small figure, wearing a black blouse and loose, torn up jeans. She also had a blue hat on.
She turned around, and became startled. She said, “Oh, I didn’t know anyone was watching.”
“I’m sorry, would you like me to leave?” I replied.
“No, no it’s fine. You must be the one–”
“That was rescued. Yes, that’s me.
“Hey, I’m Jane Molbot,” she said as she stuck out her hand. I shook it. “So, are you interested in learning how to shoot?”
“Not everyone’s cut out for that Jane,” said a voice from behind me. I turned around to see another woman wearing a long white coat, with black pants and a blue blouse. She had black hair that was done up on the back of her head, was of average size, and had an average face. Actually this woman seemed to be quite average.
“Ah, Mel, this is the guy that got rescued,” said Jane. “Mel here is our resident scientist, she’s quite the brainiac.”
“And Jane here’s one of the only tomboy’s you’ll find here,” said Mel with a smirk. Jane gave her a dirty look. “She’s also the best gunslinger you’ll ever meet.”
“If you say so. Hey Mel, you should tell him a little about that armor you developed.”
“Oh, sure, but stick around Jane, I’m sure you can add in your own opinion on some things.” I know had my suspicions confirmed–there was some kind of animosity between these two. It was as obvious as the stink that engulfed this place.
“Now, I was once part of a special group of scientists that were experimenting with different metals to create the ultimate armor–armor that could not be pierced by bullets. We succeeded by putting tremendous pressure on a few transitional metals while they were in a container that was heated to over four thousand degrees.
“The result was a metal that was able to rebound objects that were directed at it at alarmingly high speeds, including bullets. However, the armor did have one weakness, it was quite easily pierced by weapons that didn’t travel at such speeds, like knives, or any kind of blade really.
“That is why we combined the armor with the toughest steel to create something that was not only bullet proof, but basically any other kind of weapon proof as well.
“That’s when you started to develop better guns,” said Jane.
“Yes, I was getting to that. We tried to create a better gun, but we failed. Instead, we were able to find a metal that was able to pierce the armor with some work. And we began development of many weapons made out of the metal–swords, spears, anything and everything. That project succeeded, but was received with little hype, and the weapons never really circulated. Only specialty shops sold them, and that was mainly for collectors.
“Guns were still preferred, and I can see why,” said Jane, butting in again.
“For some, yes. Jane here can pinpoint the places where the armor lacks protection for the body, and hit them too. For other people, they prefer my custom weapons.”
“Would you like to see them?” asked Jane, a question that I realized was directed at me.
“Sure,” I replied. I had a feeling I’d see them no matter what I said.
“Then follow us, and we’ll show you the collection,” said Mel.
I followed them into what seemed to be a back alley. In reality, it was only a dark path that had massive piles of garbage on both sides. Finally we got to the end of the path, and there stood another almost demolished warehouse.
“That’s where they are, come on, let’s go,” said Jane.
When we got inside, the sight astounded me. While on the outside the warehouse looked ready to collapse, on the inside was a massive amount of machines and computers. The entirety of the technology looked highly advanced, or so it seemed to my untrained eyes.
“Here is where we make the magic happen,” said Mel. “As you can see, we have all the variety you could ever imagine.” I looked around, and she was right. There were weapons lined along all of the walls of the warehouse, most of them I had never seen nor heard of. I walked around, and saw a particular sword I found to be particularly alluring.
“So you like that sword?” asked Jane.
“Yes, it’s quite nice.”
“Don’t you want to try out a gun?”
“No thanks.”
“Ah, what a wussie.”
“Jane, that’s enough,” said Mel. “If you really like that sword, then you can try it out in the training grounds.”
I lifted the sword off the wall, or at least tried. I couldn’t really move it.
“Um, I don’t think I’m in the kind of condition to be trying out weapons.”
“Ya Mel, he’s not fit for that, cut him some slack.”
“I’m sorry, but you might as well see the training grounds anyways.”
The training grounds were in smaller warehouse that had no roof. The walls were lined with new steel, and later I realized that out of them, small mechanical guns set to auto fire were protruding. The grounds had a few metal makeshift practice dummies.
“Come to practice?” asked a familiar voice. I turned around to see Sarah. My heart started to beat faster.
“Uh…not really…” I managed to mumble out. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, for some reason I couldn’t talk very well in front of her.
“Well you should. If you’re going to join us and fight, that is. By the way, have you made your decision?”
I had thought about it. I really didn’t have much else to do with my life. Revenge seemed to be my only option. And how could I say no to someone so beautiful?
“I’ll do it,” I replied.
<div align="center">Chapter Six</div>
Five months later, in the same training grounds, I was flying through the air.
I came down hard on the ground, slashing through a metal figure that was supposed to look like the enemy. I hid behind it as the automatic guns locked on to me. Finally I came out from behind it, and threw my sword at the first of the two guns.
That gun disabled, I ran to retrieve my weapon, with bullets streaming behind me. As soon as I reached my sword, in one fluid motion I took it out of the wall, turned, and threw it at the last gun. The course was now complete, and I just stood there to catch my breath.
“Great job Alkul, that’s all for today,” said Mel over the speakerphone. She was watching me practice and giving me pointers. I had learned that she was somewhat of a perfectionist. She never seemed to be completely pleased with what I did.
Alkul was the name I had chosen for myself. It used to be the name of an ancient warrior who was said to possess the power over the skies. He had once been imprisoned, but escaped to free his people, which were under the control of a wicked warlord. I thought it was a fitting name for myself.
Five months of steady training, and I was finally ready to go on my first mission. I have to admit, I was quite excited when I first heard that I was ready. Combat practice was starting to get easy, and I was starting to get bored. Now I needed a challenge.
I have yet to use my abilities, because I have had no need. My increased strength, speed, and dexterity allow me to fight well enough with just my sword.
As I walked back to the showers, Sarah passed by me in the hallway. Suddenly my first feelings were back, and I was flustered. She muttered something under her breath. It took me a while to realize what she said.
“You’ll have to master them someday.”
At first I was a bit confused, but then I realized she must have been talking about my powers. I hated to admit it, but she was right. If I didn’t master them quick, well they might get out of control. I might destroy another factory, or worse, destroy people that I was close to.
These past few months I had grown close to the people I had met as I came out of my illusion. I had begun to think of them as friends, maybe not really good friends, but friends nonetheless.
Most of my days were spent training. I also was told a lot more things about the world around me. It seems that all of the seven people I had first met were in the elite of the resistance to the President. It also seems that one of the reasons they were elite was because they all had something against the President. It was as if our commander, Jason Nox, wanted to be sure they had the ultimate motivation to go through with their tasks.
Jason Nox was a cripple that had been a military commander for forty years. He now couldn’t walk, and was confined to a wheelchair. But he was a militaristic genius. He knew everything about war, including battle strategies and what needed to be done outside of battle to win a war.
“Alkul!” I turned around to find Buck beckoning me to come to him.
“What is it Buck?” I asked.
“Jason wants to see ya!”
“All right, I’ll be right there!”
I quickly put my sword in its place in my room. Right now I was staying in a room right outside of the training grounds since that was the place I spent most of my days at. Besides, good housing was hard to come by around here.
I started walking towards Jason’s office. I then quickened my pace because I knew how he hated people that were late. I didn’t want to get on his bad side right before my first mission.
When I finally arrived at his office, I took a deep breath, and then knocked.
“Come in.” I opened the door and stepped into his office.
His office was a room before he had it completely cleared out of everything, and then he just put in a few bookshelves, a desk, and a few chairs. Over time, the papers in his office seemed to just grow somehow. I didn’t have a clue what any of those papers were.
“Have a seat Alkul.” I sat in a very uncomfortable chair that looked like it was about to fall apart.
“Do you know what risks are involved in this mission you are going on?”
“I’m assuming you’ll tell me anyways.” He chuckled.
“Yes, you’re probably right. Well, I might as well get to it. This mission, or any mission for that matter, has risks involved. Some have greater risks than others, but you must realize one thing. On any mission there is a possibility that you may die. Some missions have a greater chance, some less. But realize that there is still a chance. So I have to ask you: are you ready to die for our cause?”
That was a pretty big question. I had thought about it a lot while I was training. I knew eventually I might die from being involved.
“I’m ready to do whatever it takes for this cause.”
Jason nodded and said, “Good, I’m glad. I didn’t want to send you on a mission without knowing that. Now, you better prepare for it, and I’ll see you at the briefing this afternoon.”
“Yes sir,” I said as I stood up. Just as I was about to leave, Jason said:
“Good luck.”
“Thank you sir.” I left his office.
<div align="center">Chapter Seven</div>
“This mission is solely to acquire supplies from the upper world. It requires that you don’t unveil your identities, and kill anyone who sees you. It is imperative that we are not put on spotlight because of this mission. Our time to strike is not yet here.”
Jason Nox had been going on for almost half an hour. He was constantly pacing back and forth, and it had been quite annoying. Especially since he walked with a limp, because he had no left leg.
“I think he told us that then minutes ago,” Weeka whispered as he leaned over toward me. I chuckled softly.
“Remember our objective. That is all, dismissed,” said Jason Nox, as he finally finished.
Weeka and I ended up walking out together, with the other six of the elite squad ahead of us. I was watching Rose walk when Weeka started talking.
“Man, I thought he’d never stop talking! That guy needs to learn how to get to the point, right Alkul?” I barely heard him because I was focused on Rose. After getting no response, he nudged me, breaking me out of my trance.
“Hey, snap out of it kid, what are you doing going blank on me just before a mission?” Then he looked at Rose. “Oh, it’s her. Hey trust me kid–ya got no hope with her. She may look like a million bucks, but she’s a whole lot of hurt. She’ll turn you down cause she’s out for revenge. And she kills in cold blood.” He shivered. “Nasty woman really. Remember, don’t let her looks fool ya kid.”
“Uh…thanks for the advice.”
“You’re welcome. Now get focused, cause this ain’t no parade we’re headin’ off to. This is serious.”
“Right, sorry. I’m ok now.”
“You better be. Otherwise, it’s your head off your body.”
I knew that my life was on the line, and I especially knew that I had to keep sharp and not let my friends (and partners) down. I also knew the reason I was putting my life on the line. I wanted to meet the President, tell him all about my life and what he made me suffer through. That was what we all wanted to do, everyone in the elite squad. That’s why we were the elite squad.
The party all filed into a room, the Dressing Room. Which was really just a room where all of our weapons and armor were stored. For right now though, we only had an extra set of clothes for armor. That’s what this mission was about to fix.
Our mission was to seek out and obtain the armor that the military currently uses. That would enable us to be well equipped for the greater mission at hand, which was getting to the President.
“Is everyone ready?” asked Jason as he opened the door and peaked in.
“I believe so,” replied Mel.
“Well then, good luck. Come home safe.” With that, Jason left.
“Well team, let’s go,” said Buck.
We all walked out the door, silent. The only thing we heard was our boots stepping in the mud. We were silent up until we hit the ventilation grate.
The city was built to withstand the GWC, so it had glass covering the entire middle and upper floors to protect them from the elements. Since they still needed fresh air, they designed an entire ventilation system to cool and air out the city. And that was our way in.
“Here we go chums,” said Buck, as he used his double-sided spear to cut through the grate.
“Uh, didn’t we want to put that back when we’re finished?” asked Weeka.
“No, this shaft is never checked, cleaned or even noticed. Besides, we’ll be using it often. Now get in and start crawling.”
“Who made you the leader?”
“I’m the oldest, and most experienced. So I deserve to be leader.”
“No one knows Tred’s age, maybe he’s older.”
“I don’t care. Buck’s the leader, now get on with the mission already,” said Tred.
“Thank you. Now start crawling everyone,” said Buck.
The vent was dusty, dirty, and smelled like something died. And what had died, we soon found out. Rats, lots and lots of dead rats. Rose was constantly shrieking whenever she saw one. Which was about every half a minute.
“Rose would you please pipe down!” exclaimed Buck.
“I can’t stand rats, dead or alive!” Rose shouted back.
“Well scream inside, so you don’t blow our ears off and give our position away all at the same time!”
“I’ll try…”
We kept moving, and soon the vents got a little cleaner, and were free of rats. Rose was noticeably breathing easier. Finally, we reached our destination, a vent just above the military’s patrol, 200 meters away from the armory we were trying to raid. It was a small armory, used only for the patrol between the middle and lower levels, but it would suffice for our needs.
“Ok, on my signal, we get out and attack,” said Buck.
“What’s the signal?” asked Weeka.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
We waited, and waited. It felt like an eternity, but was really only about five minutes. All of us were starting to get anxious.
“There’s only four guards, so go!” exclaimed Buck as he waved his hand in a forward motion.
Buck burst through the vent first, taking the grate with him. He rolled, and immediately started fighting the four guards. Weeka went next, followed by Rose, Sarah, Tred, Mel, Jane and me. By the time I got there, the four guards were finished.
“Ok, no time to lose,” said Buck, “We got two hundred meters to go before we get to the armory. So let’s hustle people!”
And hustle we did. We ran about a hundred meters before finding more guards. Apparently one of the four must have signaled the others with some kind of tiny device. I looked to see if I could number them, but there was constantly more coming. Twenty, thirty…I didn’t know if we could take them all.
“We can take ’em,” said Buck, “Just follow my lead!” Buck rushed in to meet the guards.
Everyone ran in. Weeka, being the acrobatic one, got there first, and used his katars to slice and dice any opposition. Then Buck got to the guards, and with his double-sided spear whirling, he destroyed anyone who got in his way. Next came in Mel, with her dual-wielding daggers and throwing knives, she was deadly. Then came in Rose. She pulled out two steel fans, and danced her way through her opponents. Except her dancing was death for them.
“Told you she was a killer!” shouted Weeka, obviously directed at me.
Jane stayed at the back, sniping down guards where they had little armor. Sarah also stayed at the back, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized, she could move metal. More than that, she could take it apart into pieces, and mold it back together again. She used a steel javelin that she broke apart into ten pieces, all with laser sharp ends. She just moved them through the guards, and they fell.
“She’s like an archer that uses the same arrows over and over,” said Tred, “but she doesn’t need a bow.”
And finally, there was Tred. He used two short swords so fluidly, they looked as if they were just extensions of his arms. No one could stop him.
With everybody already in battle, I finally got to it. I faced a guard who held up his gun to fire, but I took my sword and jabbed him in the gut. He fell to the ground.
“It’s a strange feeling, your first kill,” said Weeka, as he approached me. “But there’s no time to think about that now. We’ve got a battle to win.”
I focused on the battle. I went through the moves I had been taught, and practiced until they became almost instinct. I was much slower than the others, but I got the job done.
Suddenly there was a shot that hit its target. Buck groaned.
“Mel, Sarah, Jane! They’ve got snipers! Take them out!” he exclaimed.
I saw Sarah’s “arrows” fly towards the guards in the back. More shots were fired, and soon everyone but me had a wound somewhere. Tred already had multiple wounds, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Then I got shot. I must admit, it felt like…well a bullet. But it didn’t compare to the pain I went through when I destroyed that factory.
“Kid, you ok?” asked Buck.
“Ya, I’m all right.” I answered back.
“Good, then keep at it!”
I did, and more gunshots went off, more groans from the team. I tried to look at the number of guards that were against us. I thought I saw thirty. We were getting nowhere! They had an endless supply of troops, and they would eventually win once we were too wounded.
“Don’t give up, we’re advancing!” shouted Buck, who had blood all over his chest.
Then I got shot again, but kept fighting. Another shot hit me, and I kept fighting. I began to see blood, and thought that I might be sweating blood. But really I was just wiping my bloody hand to clear the sweat off of my forehead, and that blood mixed with my sweat.
Another shot hit me. Suddenly I realized I was in tremendous pain. I could see the others hurting as well. Even Jane and Sarah, who were in the back lines the whole time, had taken a few bullets. I put one knee down. I didn’t think I could go on. Then I got shot again, and fell.
Somehow I managed to get up. Then I heard thunder. I didn’t realize it until later, but I made that thunder. My hand began to glow; it had some kind of energy within it. I tried to shake it off, but when that didn’t work, I just put my hand out towards the enemy.
The entire battlefield lit up with a blinding light. At first I didn’t know what was going on. But then I realized–the thunder, the glow in my hand, and the light on the battlefield, all of it must have been my doing, my power.
I slumped down, and ended up on my back. My eyes were starting to lose focus, everything was a bit blurry, and it constantly got worse.
“The kid did it,” I heard Buck say, but I couldn’t see him. I saw a blur, which I thought was Sarah, looking down on me.
“He sure did. Damn, what power,” said Weeka.
“He’s losing consciousness,” said Sarah.
“Sarah, Rose, Jane, take him back,” said Buck. “Tred, Mel, Weeka and I will get what we need. Go, now.”
Then slowly, everything went black.
I'm going to post the first two chapters. Yes they are short. But they are just the completion of the first of 17 points on my storyline checklist (not including epilogue). And it's the shortest point.
Without further ado, here you go.
*Update* I'm on point 6 of 16 (not 17) with the recent addition of chapters.
<div align="center">The Right to Live</div>
<div align="center">Chapter One</div>
I opened my eyes and came to the realization that I was alive. The dream I just had was gone, but I remember it as being shocking to me. Like it was…true reality. I shook my head. I don’t even remember what it was about. So it couldn’t have been important.
“Mom?” I shouted as I walked out of my bedroom.
“Yes dear?” she replied.
“What’s for breakfast?” I asked as I came into the kitchen where my mother was. My mother was a beautiful woman, slender, yet not skinny, with a perfect face and perfect complexion. She even had perfect brown hair.
“French toast dear,” my mother replied with a smile.
“Great, I’m starved.”
Our house was a large house, or so I was told. It had three floors, not including a basement. My room was on the top floor, while the kitchen was on the middle. My game room was on the bottom floor, and I had never been to the basement.
In fact, I had never been outside. I never had need to. All my daily enjoyments were provided inside this house. My mother was here, and so was my father. Well, my father wasn’t here now, because he was at work.
When my mom finished the meal, she served it to me. I ate it quickly, as I really was starving. When I had finished, a part of me felt full, yet another did not. I had come to realize that this was a normal feeling.
Today I decided to play video games. I wore a special head device that allowed me to play as a character in a virtual world. I was almost done the game.
As I was playing, I reflected on my life. Sure, I didn’t go outside, but that was normal because it wasn’t safe outside. Besides, mommy cooked for me and I got to do whatever I wanted inside the house. I loved my mother, and she loved me more. I couldn’t think of what I would do without her.
By the end of the day, I still hadn’t beaten the game, and a part of me still didn’t feel full. But I went to bed anyways, thinking that I could get full and beat the game in the morning. So I went to bed, my mother tucked me in, and I fell asleep.
<div align="center">Chapter Two</div>
I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. I was having the same dream again. But the dream was still blurry, like I could almost see it but something was missing.
I realized that I had never been around my house in the middle of the night. Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to explore.
The house wasn’t creepy at all; in fact it was still peaceful even in the dark. I then heard something creak; it seemed to come from downstairs. But I was on the lowest level, how could that be? Of course, it must have come from the basement. Since I was in a curious mood, I decided to check out another thing I had never seen, the basement.
The basement was accessed using a door that was on the floor. Strange, I know, but I was told that this was how most basements were accessed.
I went down to the door, and then stopped. I remembered that my mother told me never to open this door. But this was just part of our house, which was tranquil. It couldn’t be harmful. So I decided to open it, but I had no idea what awaited on the other side.
There was a blinding white light that seemed to consume my basement. There were a few stairs, which I started to walk down. When I was at the bottom and my eyes had adjusted, they opened wide while my jaw dropped as I beheld something unimaginable.
I was inside some kind of sphere, and I was on the bottom. The stairs that led to my house led to a transparent cube that I realized was my house. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My palms got clammy, my heartbeat was racing and I didn’t even know why. I dashed back into the house to make sure this wasn’t a dream.
When I got back into my house, it suddenly started to fade! It was like a screen that was turning to static, slowly my house disappeared. And then only the transparent cube was left.
“What happened? What’s going on? Mom? Dad? Where are you? What is happening?”
“The experiment has realized the illusion. Subdue him and then we shall restart the data analysis.”
“What? Who is that? Who is the experiment?”
Just then two men that wore some kind of armor walked in. They were carrying weapons, guns.
“Just don’t move, and everything will be fine.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“Restart.”
“Where’s my mother?”
“She isn’t real. She was just a computer program to help us with you, the experiment.”
“I’m what?! An experiment!”
“That’s right. Now sit still and this will all be over.”
My mother wasn’t real. Everything I knew, loved, wasn’t real. Suddenly it all made sense. The dreams, not being able to go outside or into the basement, which wasn’t a basement at all, all these things were because none of this actually existed.
Suddenly I had an emotion I had never experienced. Anger, mixed in with hate, anguish and despair. All of this emotion bubbled forth inside of me, and then I felt it.
It was an immense source of power that came from within me. My emotions triggered it, and it was about to release. I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t even know it existed until now, so how could I possibly know how to control it?
The power was engulfing my body, and I began to glow. My senses stopped working. I could only faintly use them. I faintly heard the desperate shouts of the two men, and the terror in their eyes.
Finally, the power was released, and then everything went black.
<div align="center">Chapter Three</div>
I came back to the world, with no feeling anywhere. The world was black, but there was something. I could hear voices faintly, as if they were out of my reach to comprehend. I struggled to hear them. Finally after some amount of time, I could.
“He’s been out for a while, think he’ll make it?” said a mysterious voice, a man’s voice.
“I’m quite confident he’ll recover, he just needs some rest,” said another unknown voice, a woman’s.
Were they talking about me?
“It doesn’t seem possible that he could have survived a blast like that,” said the man.
“Unless he created it,” replied the woman.
That’s all I heard, because before I knew it, sleep took me over.
The next time I regained consciousness, I was able to see. What I saw shocked me.
The room was nothing like my house, or my former house that is. In fact it was almost the exact opposite. Where my former house (I had to keep reminding myself of that) was tranquil, this place was chaos. Where my former house was white and clean, this place was dirty beyond means. I was kind of glad my sense of smell hadn’t returned yet, and I didn’t look forward to the moment it returned.
I noticed that no one was around. “Where am I?” I thought.
“You’re in what once was a hospital.”
I looked around, and sitting in a chair beside my bed was a rough-looking man. He also looked extremely tough, not a person to meet at night. He had short blonde hair, and a small moustache. He wore a torn dark green shirt, and khakis. His arms were as thick as my thighs.
“Did I say that out loud?” I asked.
“No.”
“Can you read my mind?”
He laughed. It was then that I realized he had the same voice as the man I heard before. This must be him I heard.
“Then…”
“It’s a question every person who wakes up in some place they’ve never been before.”
“Oh, I guess it is. Who are you?”
“My name is Buck McLennon. And what’s your name?”
I had to think. Did I have a name? I couldn’t remember my mother calling my by a name. Was that even my mother? I realized that she wasn’t. None of my past was real. It was all an illusion.
“I…don’t have a name.”
“Don’t have a name? You’ve got to have a name!” said Buck.
“I guess I’ll have to think of one.”
“I guess you will, but for now we’ll call you New Guy. That ok with you?”
“Sure, I guess.”
“Good. Now I’ll get Sarah for ya. Just wait here, and don’t move. Be back in a flash.”
I nodded, saying I understood. Buck left the room. One thing I didn’t get was why I wasn’t allowed to move. Maybe it was because I was a prisoner. Or maybe it was because I was an experiment.
I decided to try and get up anyway. Immediately I felt pain all over my body. So that’s why I wasn’t supposed to move.
I realized that because all I ever knew was an illusion, I knew nothing. Well, I knew the extreme basics. But as for this world, I might as well be an alien. An alien that had no idea how he got here, wherever here was.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” I said.
The most beautiful woman I had ever seen walked right in. Now, technically I had never seen any other women before, just a fake representation, but she was still beautiful. How, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know why my heart was pounding.
She had long, straight red hair that came down to her shoulders. She was average height, and had a slim figure. She wore tight jeans that were torn in many places, and a tight shirt that seemed as though it hadn’t been washed in a week.
“Hey there,” she said.
“Hi.”
“My name is Sarah Betward. Do you know why you are here?”
“I don’t even know where here is.”
“Ah, then I guess I’ll have to start there. Listen up, because this is a crash course on our world.
“We are currently living in the city called Mitinar. After the Global Warming Crisis, or the GWC as we call it, Mitinar was one of the only cities left standing, and that’s because it was built of three different levels, ground level, mid level, and the top. It was built to reach the skies, which it nearly did. Mitinar stands higher than some mountains.
“During the GWC, mankind had to survive. After a while, a select few people began running a military, supposedly designed to help in times of disaster. The military did fulfill that, for a while.
“For thirty years thunderstorms, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, torrential rain ransacked the entire earth. Billions of lives were lost.
“When the GWC finally ceased, and the skies became calm enough for people to see the sun for more than two days, mankind began to rebuild. There were only about seven million people who survived, or so it was estimated. The world began anew.
“Cities were forged in places where any kind of shelter still remained. Mitinar was one of the only cities in the entire earth that managed to stay mostly intact. Seventy years have passed since the GWC ended.
“Since there were so few people on the earth, there were no longer countries, only cities that were run by a President and his military. In Mitinar we are no different, save for one thing.
“As I said before the city consists of three levels. These three levels served as dividers of the classes, lower, middle and upper. This is truly an unfair and completely unjust way of ruling things.
“However, the President does not see it that way. And so he uses his military to keep people in line, in order, and on the right level. Most people that were on the ground level were likely to dislike this, so he found a way to remove any threat from them.
“He took away all of the technology that the people of the ground level had. That way his military could run things on the ground level easily, as they are the only ones with weapons. That was when the rebellion started.
“It is an organization that is fighting the unjust distinction between peoples. No one is allowed to go to a different level. Even the mid level people are kept in check, with the use of cameras and listening devices that are everywhere.
“We are currently on the ground level. I am part of the rebellion. Most of the people on this level are. And we are determined to bring the President down.”
This was all a little much for me to take in. I didn’t know what to say, or even think. It was like the world was slowly pushing down on me, crushing me.
“I think I need some time to take this all in,” I said.
“That’s understandable. I’ll be by to see you in a little while.”
“Can you tell me…”
“What?”
“Well, what I am, exactly.”
“All in due time. Now get some rest.”
She then handed me some kind of green liquid in a glass. I drank it reluctantly, and for good reason. It was the worse thing I had ever tasted in my life.
She left the room. As I lay there, my thoughts were centered on my recently acquired knowledge of this world. Soon those thoughts faded, and the pressure of the world eased up on me. Finally my thoughts slipped to the beautiful woman that came to my room to tell me a story, a story that was the reality in which I lived in. With that, I fell asleep, even though I had no idea whether it was day or night.
<div align="center">Chapter Four</div>
When I woke up, there was a man I had never seen before standing beside my bed, looking down on me. He had greasy black hair (that really needed a comb), was quite tall, and he was pretty thin. He wore a long black jacket, dark blue pants, a black shirt, and had a black hat on. He looked at me so that I could see his eyes. They were a light blue color, so they literally looked like ice. I was beginning to wonder if he was friend or foe.
“’Bout time you woke up,” he said.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“My name is Trefdale, most people call me Tred.”
“No last name?” I asked as I cocked an eyebrow.
“I heard you don’t even have a name,” he said right back at me, with a voice as unfeeling as a rodent is to a stick.
I struggled with what to say next. I was extremely uncomfortable, but “Tred” seemed to be at complete ease. So with nothing else to do, I asked the only question I had been wondering about.
“Do you know who or what I am?”
“That’s what I’m here to tell you about. Before I do though, just realize it isn’t a pretty story, so be prepared.”
“I’ve lived my entire life in an illusion, and just broke out of it. I don’t think things can get much worse.”
“But for what reason were you living in an illusion? That’s what can make it worse.” He said all of his words as cold as ice.
I took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
“Good. Now here’s your story.”
“When the GWC ended and the military began to take a more enforcing role, there was an interest in using today’s technology to create a perfect soldier, a soldier that had undergone genetic alterations to make him stronger, faster, and better than any normal human. And so the experiments began.
“At first it was just on volunteers. But when the experiments started failing and people started dying, the volunteers stopped coming in. And so the military began searching for infants, so the genes could be more easily modified, and then grow on their own.
“The experiments didn’t fail. But after the word got out of the failed experiments got out, the President was forced to shut down the production. And so the experiments ended.
“But what were the scientist to do with the experiments? They couldn’t dispose of them; after all they were human beings. So they decided to raise them, and use them for data analysis.
“You were one of those experiments, one of the last. That’s your story.” He said it so bluntly it hit me like a hammer. I was an experiment, nothing more than a few men’s creation.
“You’re not alone though. Remember Sarah? She was also an experiment. You can talk to her if you want to talk at all.”
“Wait, there’s something else I need to know.”
“Shoot.”
“How did I end up here?”
“Oh ya, I forgot about that. Right, now how much do you remember?”
“I remember a power inside, and then thunder, and then nothing.”
“So you remember thunder. Do you know what that thunder was?”
“No, I was hoping you could tell me that,” I said quite frankly.
“Well for your information, it was your power. You have the ability to manipulate electricity, specifically lightning.”
My jaw dropped, lower than it had ever dropped in my life.
“I have the power to control lightning?”
“Didn’t I just say that? Yes, you control lightning. And it was your lightning that destroyed an entire factory, and almost killed you. But that usually happens when your power first awakes.”
“Usually happens?”
“Well it’s either that, or you actually kill yourself. You’re lucky to be alive right now.”
I didn’t feel very lucky. I was in an unknown world, with people I had never seen before until now, with unknown powers and I didn’t know squat about much else. Fine mess I was in.
Tred moved closer to me and said, “It was the President and his subjects that did this to you. That’s precisely who we’re fighting. If you’re interested, you can join us, and get back at the bastards that did this to you. It’s your choice though, you can always rot here as well.”
“I need some time to think first.”
He shrugged. “Sure, whatever. Get some sleep, cause when you wake up, you’ll finally be able to move around. I’ll leave you to your thoughts.”
I was silent as he walked out of my room and closed the door. Just before I fell asleep, I was thinking about how I’m an experiment, nothing more than a guinea pig. Suddenly I felt a strong emotion for the President, something I had never felt before. It was hatred.
<div align="center">Chapter Five</div>
When I woke up again, breakfast was already waiting for me. It was some kind of greenish-brownish soup along with partly stale bread. After two days of eating this meal, I hadn’t figured out what I tasted in the soup.
Suddenly the door burst open and a head popped in. It was a man whose clothes and hair suggested that he hadn’t seen a bath in weeks. He was ragged, unshaven, and had a funny smell about him. However, he had a smile on that seemed as though it had never left his face.
“Oh good, you’re awake. That means I didn’t disturb you. My name’s Weeka Maunt, at your service.”
I was a little surprised, so all I could get out was, “Uh…hi.”
“So, you’re one of them human experiments, aren’t ya?”
“Yes, I guess I am.”
“Ah well don’t worry about it too much. Not like you’re gonna die of some infection or mutate. They experimented on animals before humans you know, and that already happened. That’s why outside the camp there are all sorts of weird beasts you could run into. So be a little careful out there, it’s not you’re nice and jolly nature walk anymore.”
“Oh, good to know.”
“But you don’t have to worry about them, right? Nah, you’ve got amazing abilities. So don’t sweat this small stuff. Once you get control, you’ll walk all over ’em.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“No problem. Hey, tell ya what. Anytime you need anything, just give me a holler. If I can’t help you, then I’ll find someone who can. Will that work for you?”
“Yes, thanks very much.”
“Hey, no problem. Oh, and apparently you’re allowed to get up now. Which means, you can probably stand up without sending a fiery pain up your spine.” And with that, he walked out the door. He sure was a strange character.
I decided that I should try to stand up and walk. I was still sore all over (and I mean all over) but I did manage to stand. Walking was a little more painful, and I had to use the wall or some object that I could lean on to keep my balance. I was soon out the door.
The hallway looked as though it was completely deserted; however it wasn’t. As I walked along it, I ran into another person I had never seen before, another woman. Her beauty stopped my heart for over five seconds.
She was the very essence of beauty, long blonde hair that went past her shoulders, a perfect complexion, her eyes, nose and mouth were all perfect, and her body was thin, but not skinny. For some reason I couldn’t keep my eyes off her chest, but that could have been because her red shirt had a very low neck, and was very tight. She wore a pink skirt that came down to the middle of her thighs. She was very well kept; this was obvious because her clothes were so clean and tidy.
“Hello, my name’s Rose Windfall. Are you the one who was rescued?” she said, a voice that was heavenly.
“Um, yes I guess that’s me.”
“I was told to give you this,” she said as she handed me a cane.
“But, I’m not old, I don’t need this.”
“It’s not just for the old silly, it’s also for the impaired. And you young man are definitely impaired.” I thought about that, and decided she was right. I took the cane.
“Well have fun looking around. If you find that you can’t go on, just sit down. Someone will eventually find you.” With that, she walked off. I kept looking on at her, and her swagger was hypnotizing. When she turned a corner and went out of sight, I came back to reality.
As I kept walking, I was thinking about how beautiful Rose was. But for some reason, I still felt as though Sarah was more beautiful. I finally decided to leave that thinking until later, after all I was just learning about this world, I had no time for women.
With the help of my newly acquired (and greatly appreciated) cane, I finally got outside. I was unprepared for the sight, and smell, of it all.
I had never seen so much junk. It was everywhere! People left anything and everything around them and didn’t even care. I looked around, and didn’t find a single spot that was junk free. The ground was no longer ground; you couldn’t even see the dirt because it was so over-filled with junk.
And the smell, oh it was overwhelming! So many smells all at once, and none of them good. It was like people had trapped the world’s worst smells and placed them all here to grow and flourish. I held my nose closed and breathed through my mouth as I walked on.
I walked through what looked like a camp. The only way I could tell was that there was a fire in a barrel, and some kind of material as a shelter held up by a couple of poles. The rest of the area looked exactly the same as the surrounding areas.
As I kept walking on, I went through a practice range. I decided to stop for a bit and catch my breath. The “practice range” was a shooting range that was basically an abandoned warehouse that had painted boxes lined up at different ranges. The boxes were painted to look like a person-the target.
There was only one person practicing. It was a woman, short brown hair, small figure, wearing a black blouse and loose, torn up jeans. She also had a blue hat on.
She turned around, and became startled. She said, “Oh, I didn’t know anyone was watching.”
“I’m sorry, would you like me to leave?” I replied.
“No, no it’s fine. You must be the one–”
“That was rescued. Yes, that’s me.
“Hey, I’m Jane Molbot,” she said as she stuck out her hand. I shook it. “So, are you interested in learning how to shoot?”
“Not everyone’s cut out for that Jane,” said a voice from behind me. I turned around to see another woman wearing a long white coat, with black pants and a blue blouse. She had black hair that was done up on the back of her head, was of average size, and had an average face. Actually this woman seemed to be quite average.
“Ah, Mel, this is the guy that got rescued,” said Jane. “Mel here is our resident scientist, she’s quite the brainiac.”
“And Jane here’s one of the only tomboy’s you’ll find here,” said Mel with a smirk. Jane gave her a dirty look. “She’s also the best gunslinger you’ll ever meet.”
“If you say so. Hey Mel, you should tell him a little about that armor you developed.”
“Oh, sure, but stick around Jane, I’m sure you can add in your own opinion on some things.” I know had my suspicions confirmed–there was some kind of animosity between these two. It was as obvious as the stink that engulfed this place.
“Now, I was once part of a special group of scientists that were experimenting with different metals to create the ultimate armor–armor that could not be pierced by bullets. We succeeded by putting tremendous pressure on a few transitional metals while they were in a container that was heated to over four thousand degrees.
“The result was a metal that was able to rebound objects that were directed at it at alarmingly high speeds, including bullets. However, the armor did have one weakness, it was quite easily pierced by weapons that didn’t travel at such speeds, like knives, or any kind of blade really.
“That is why we combined the armor with the toughest steel to create something that was not only bullet proof, but basically any other kind of weapon proof as well.
“That’s when you started to develop better guns,” said Jane.
“Yes, I was getting to that. We tried to create a better gun, but we failed. Instead, we were able to find a metal that was able to pierce the armor with some work. And we began development of many weapons made out of the metal–swords, spears, anything and everything. That project succeeded, but was received with little hype, and the weapons never really circulated. Only specialty shops sold them, and that was mainly for collectors.
“Guns were still preferred, and I can see why,” said Jane, butting in again.
“For some, yes. Jane here can pinpoint the places where the armor lacks protection for the body, and hit them too. For other people, they prefer my custom weapons.”
“Would you like to see them?” asked Jane, a question that I realized was directed at me.
“Sure,” I replied. I had a feeling I’d see them no matter what I said.
“Then follow us, and we’ll show you the collection,” said Mel.
I followed them into what seemed to be a back alley. In reality, it was only a dark path that had massive piles of garbage on both sides. Finally we got to the end of the path, and there stood another almost demolished warehouse.
“That’s where they are, come on, let’s go,” said Jane.
When we got inside, the sight astounded me. While on the outside the warehouse looked ready to collapse, on the inside was a massive amount of machines and computers. The entirety of the technology looked highly advanced, or so it seemed to my untrained eyes.
“Here is where we make the magic happen,” said Mel. “As you can see, we have all the variety you could ever imagine.” I looked around, and she was right. There were weapons lined along all of the walls of the warehouse, most of them I had never seen nor heard of. I walked around, and saw a particular sword I found to be particularly alluring.
“So you like that sword?” asked Jane.
“Yes, it’s quite nice.”
“Don’t you want to try out a gun?”
“No thanks.”
“Ah, what a wussie.”
“Jane, that’s enough,” said Mel. “If you really like that sword, then you can try it out in the training grounds.”
I lifted the sword off the wall, or at least tried. I couldn’t really move it.
“Um, I don’t think I’m in the kind of condition to be trying out weapons.”
“Ya Mel, he’s not fit for that, cut him some slack.”
“I’m sorry, but you might as well see the training grounds anyways.”
The training grounds were in smaller warehouse that had no roof. The walls were lined with new steel, and later I realized that out of them, small mechanical guns set to auto fire were protruding. The grounds had a few metal makeshift practice dummies.
“Come to practice?” asked a familiar voice. I turned around to see Sarah. My heart started to beat faster.
“Uh…not really…” I managed to mumble out. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, for some reason I couldn’t talk very well in front of her.
“Well you should. If you’re going to join us and fight, that is. By the way, have you made your decision?”
I had thought about it. I really didn’t have much else to do with my life. Revenge seemed to be my only option. And how could I say no to someone so beautiful?
“I’ll do it,” I replied.
<div align="center">Chapter Six</div>
Five months later, in the same training grounds, I was flying through the air.
I came down hard on the ground, slashing through a metal figure that was supposed to look like the enemy. I hid behind it as the automatic guns locked on to me. Finally I came out from behind it, and threw my sword at the first of the two guns.
That gun disabled, I ran to retrieve my weapon, with bullets streaming behind me. As soon as I reached my sword, in one fluid motion I took it out of the wall, turned, and threw it at the last gun. The course was now complete, and I just stood there to catch my breath.
“Great job Alkul, that’s all for today,” said Mel over the speakerphone. She was watching me practice and giving me pointers. I had learned that she was somewhat of a perfectionist. She never seemed to be completely pleased with what I did.
Alkul was the name I had chosen for myself. It used to be the name of an ancient warrior who was said to possess the power over the skies. He had once been imprisoned, but escaped to free his people, which were under the control of a wicked warlord. I thought it was a fitting name for myself.
Five months of steady training, and I was finally ready to go on my first mission. I have to admit, I was quite excited when I first heard that I was ready. Combat practice was starting to get easy, and I was starting to get bored. Now I needed a challenge.
I have yet to use my abilities, because I have had no need. My increased strength, speed, and dexterity allow me to fight well enough with just my sword.
As I walked back to the showers, Sarah passed by me in the hallway. Suddenly my first feelings were back, and I was flustered. She muttered something under her breath. It took me a while to realize what she said.
“You’ll have to master them someday.”
At first I was a bit confused, but then I realized she must have been talking about my powers. I hated to admit it, but she was right. If I didn’t master them quick, well they might get out of control. I might destroy another factory, or worse, destroy people that I was close to.
These past few months I had grown close to the people I had met as I came out of my illusion. I had begun to think of them as friends, maybe not really good friends, but friends nonetheless.
Most of my days were spent training. I also was told a lot more things about the world around me. It seems that all of the seven people I had first met were in the elite of the resistance to the President. It also seems that one of the reasons they were elite was because they all had something against the President. It was as if our commander, Jason Nox, wanted to be sure they had the ultimate motivation to go through with their tasks.
Jason Nox was a cripple that had been a military commander for forty years. He now couldn’t walk, and was confined to a wheelchair. But he was a militaristic genius. He knew everything about war, including battle strategies and what needed to be done outside of battle to win a war.
“Alkul!” I turned around to find Buck beckoning me to come to him.
“What is it Buck?” I asked.
“Jason wants to see ya!”
“All right, I’ll be right there!”
I quickly put my sword in its place in my room. Right now I was staying in a room right outside of the training grounds since that was the place I spent most of my days at. Besides, good housing was hard to come by around here.
I started walking towards Jason’s office. I then quickened my pace because I knew how he hated people that were late. I didn’t want to get on his bad side right before my first mission.
When I finally arrived at his office, I took a deep breath, and then knocked.
“Come in.” I opened the door and stepped into his office.
His office was a room before he had it completely cleared out of everything, and then he just put in a few bookshelves, a desk, and a few chairs. Over time, the papers in his office seemed to just grow somehow. I didn’t have a clue what any of those papers were.
“Have a seat Alkul.” I sat in a very uncomfortable chair that looked like it was about to fall apart.
“Do you know what risks are involved in this mission you are going on?”
“I’m assuming you’ll tell me anyways.” He chuckled.
“Yes, you’re probably right. Well, I might as well get to it. This mission, or any mission for that matter, has risks involved. Some have greater risks than others, but you must realize one thing. On any mission there is a possibility that you may die. Some missions have a greater chance, some less. But realize that there is still a chance. So I have to ask you: are you ready to die for our cause?”
That was a pretty big question. I had thought about it a lot while I was training. I knew eventually I might die from being involved.
“I’m ready to do whatever it takes for this cause.”
Jason nodded and said, “Good, I’m glad. I didn’t want to send you on a mission without knowing that. Now, you better prepare for it, and I’ll see you at the briefing this afternoon.”
“Yes sir,” I said as I stood up. Just as I was about to leave, Jason said:
“Good luck.”
“Thank you sir.” I left his office.
<div align="center">Chapter Seven</div>
“This mission is solely to acquire supplies from the upper world. It requires that you don’t unveil your identities, and kill anyone who sees you. It is imperative that we are not put on spotlight because of this mission. Our time to strike is not yet here.”
Jason Nox had been going on for almost half an hour. He was constantly pacing back and forth, and it had been quite annoying. Especially since he walked with a limp, because he had no left leg.
“I think he told us that then minutes ago,” Weeka whispered as he leaned over toward me. I chuckled softly.
“Remember our objective. That is all, dismissed,” said Jason Nox, as he finally finished.
Weeka and I ended up walking out together, with the other six of the elite squad ahead of us. I was watching Rose walk when Weeka started talking.
“Man, I thought he’d never stop talking! That guy needs to learn how to get to the point, right Alkul?” I barely heard him because I was focused on Rose. After getting no response, he nudged me, breaking me out of my trance.
“Hey, snap out of it kid, what are you doing going blank on me just before a mission?” Then he looked at Rose. “Oh, it’s her. Hey trust me kid–ya got no hope with her. She may look like a million bucks, but she’s a whole lot of hurt. She’ll turn you down cause she’s out for revenge. And she kills in cold blood.” He shivered. “Nasty woman really. Remember, don’t let her looks fool ya kid.”
“Uh…thanks for the advice.”
“You’re welcome. Now get focused, cause this ain’t no parade we’re headin’ off to. This is serious.”
“Right, sorry. I’m ok now.”
“You better be. Otherwise, it’s your head off your body.”
I knew that my life was on the line, and I especially knew that I had to keep sharp and not let my friends (and partners) down. I also knew the reason I was putting my life on the line. I wanted to meet the President, tell him all about my life and what he made me suffer through. That was what we all wanted to do, everyone in the elite squad. That’s why we were the elite squad.
The party all filed into a room, the Dressing Room. Which was really just a room where all of our weapons and armor were stored. For right now though, we only had an extra set of clothes for armor. That’s what this mission was about to fix.
Our mission was to seek out and obtain the armor that the military currently uses. That would enable us to be well equipped for the greater mission at hand, which was getting to the President.
“Is everyone ready?” asked Jason as he opened the door and peaked in.
“I believe so,” replied Mel.
“Well then, good luck. Come home safe.” With that, Jason left.
“Well team, let’s go,” said Buck.
We all walked out the door, silent. The only thing we heard was our boots stepping in the mud. We were silent up until we hit the ventilation grate.
The city was built to withstand the GWC, so it had glass covering the entire middle and upper floors to protect them from the elements. Since they still needed fresh air, they designed an entire ventilation system to cool and air out the city. And that was our way in.
“Here we go chums,” said Buck, as he used his double-sided spear to cut through the grate.
“Uh, didn’t we want to put that back when we’re finished?” asked Weeka.
“No, this shaft is never checked, cleaned or even noticed. Besides, we’ll be using it often. Now get in and start crawling.”
“Who made you the leader?”
“I’m the oldest, and most experienced. So I deserve to be leader.”
“No one knows Tred’s age, maybe he’s older.”
“I don’t care. Buck’s the leader, now get on with the mission already,” said Tred.
“Thank you. Now start crawling everyone,” said Buck.
The vent was dusty, dirty, and smelled like something died. And what had died, we soon found out. Rats, lots and lots of dead rats. Rose was constantly shrieking whenever she saw one. Which was about every half a minute.
“Rose would you please pipe down!” exclaimed Buck.
“I can’t stand rats, dead or alive!” Rose shouted back.
“Well scream inside, so you don’t blow our ears off and give our position away all at the same time!”
“I’ll try…”
We kept moving, and soon the vents got a little cleaner, and were free of rats. Rose was noticeably breathing easier. Finally, we reached our destination, a vent just above the military’s patrol, 200 meters away from the armory we were trying to raid. It was a small armory, used only for the patrol between the middle and lower levels, but it would suffice for our needs.
“Ok, on my signal, we get out and attack,” said Buck.
“What’s the signal?” asked Weeka.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
We waited, and waited. It felt like an eternity, but was really only about five minutes. All of us were starting to get anxious.
“There’s only four guards, so go!” exclaimed Buck as he waved his hand in a forward motion.
Buck burst through the vent first, taking the grate with him. He rolled, and immediately started fighting the four guards. Weeka went next, followed by Rose, Sarah, Tred, Mel, Jane and me. By the time I got there, the four guards were finished.
“Ok, no time to lose,” said Buck, “We got two hundred meters to go before we get to the armory. So let’s hustle people!”
And hustle we did. We ran about a hundred meters before finding more guards. Apparently one of the four must have signaled the others with some kind of tiny device. I looked to see if I could number them, but there was constantly more coming. Twenty, thirty…I didn’t know if we could take them all.
“We can take ’em,” said Buck, “Just follow my lead!” Buck rushed in to meet the guards.
Everyone ran in. Weeka, being the acrobatic one, got there first, and used his katars to slice and dice any opposition. Then Buck got to the guards, and with his double-sided spear whirling, he destroyed anyone who got in his way. Next came in Mel, with her dual-wielding daggers and throwing knives, she was deadly. Then came in Rose. She pulled out two steel fans, and danced her way through her opponents. Except her dancing was death for them.
“Told you she was a killer!” shouted Weeka, obviously directed at me.
Jane stayed at the back, sniping down guards where they had little armor. Sarah also stayed at the back, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized, she could move metal. More than that, she could take it apart into pieces, and mold it back together again. She used a steel javelin that she broke apart into ten pieces, all with laser sharp ends. She just moved them through the guards, and they fell.
“She’s like an archer that uses the same arrows over and over,” said Tred, “but she doesn’t need a bow.”
And finally, there was Tred. He used two short swords so fluidly, they looked as if they were just extensions of his arms. No one could stop him.
With everybody already in battle, I finally got to it. I faced a guard who held up his gun to fire, but I took my sword and jabbed him in the gut. He fell to the ground.
“It’s a strange feeling, your first kill,” said Weeka, as he approached me. “But there’s no time to think about that now. We’ve got a battle to win.”
I focused on the battle. I went through the moves I had been taught, and practiced until they became almost instinct. I was much slower than the others, but I got the job done.
Suddenly there was a shot that hit its target. Buck groaned.
“Mel, Sarah, Jane! They’ve got snipers! Take them out!” he exclaimed.
I saw Sarah’s “arrows” fly towards the guards in the back. More shots were fired, and soon everyone but me had a wound somewhere. Tred already had multiple wounds, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Then I got shot. I must admit, it felt like…well a bullet. But it didn’t compare to the pain I went through when I destroyed that factory.
“Kid, you ok?” asked Buck.
“Ya, I’m all right.” I answered back.
“Good, then keep at it!”
I did, and more gunshots went off, more groans from the team. I tried to look at the number of guards that were against us. I thought I saw thirty. We were getting nowhere! They had an endless supply of troops, and they would eventually win once we were too wounded.
“Don’t give up, we’re advancing!” shouted Buck, who had blood all over his chest.
Then I got shot again, but kept fighting. Another shot hit me, and I kept fighting. I began to see blood, and thought that I might be sweating blood. But really I was just wiping my bloody hand to clear the sweat off of my forehead, and that blood mixed with my sweat.
Another shot hit me. Suddenly I realized I was in tremendous pain. I could see the others hurting as well. Even Jane and Sarah, who were in the back lines the whole time, had taken a few bullets. I put one knee down. I didn’t think I could go on. Then I got shot again, and fell.
Somehow I managed to get up. Then I heard thunder. I didn’t realize it until later, but I made that thunder. My hand began to glow; it had some kind of energy within it. I tried to shake it off, but when that didn’t work, I just put my hand out towards the enemy.
The entire battlefield lit up with a blinding light. At first I didn’t know what was going on. But then I realized–the thunder, the glow in my hand, and the light on the battlefield, all of it must have been my doing, my power.
I slumped down, and ended up on my back. My eyes were starting to lose focus, everything was a bit blurry, and it constantly got worse.
“The kid did it,” I heard Buck say, but I couldn’t see him. I saw a blur, which I thought was Sarah, looking down on me.
“He sure did. Damn, what power,” said Weeka.
“He’s losing consciousness,” said Sarah.
“Sarah, Rose, Jane, take him back,” said Buck. “Tred, Mel, Weeka and I will get what we need. Go, now.”
Then slowly, everything went black.