Carter sat in 9th grade math class, twirling a pen in his hand and paying very little attention to his teacher, Mr Wallbrown. Carter slowly slicked back his scrappy auburn hair and began to look at the board.
He had a pang of shock as when he looked at the whiteboard it wasn't there. In its place was a vast plane of snowy forest, as far as the eye could see.
He then looked around and saw the same thing, dense trees coated in snow as white as can be.
His desk was still there but neither were the other desk, and the other children were gone. He stood up slowly, cautious of an unknown threat. Buried within the snow with only the corner showing was a large box.
Carter approached it quickly and after a few seconds of pulling the top broke open to reveal a large, delicately engraved revolver as well as ammunition to match, a messenger bag made from tough leather and a med kit.
Carter slid the bag over his shoulder and concealed the med kit and the gun in it.
He double checked the box for anything else, with no such luck he looked for his next move in the snowy planes.
Behind him he heard a loud *POP*, he quickly turned around and saw a flare shining.
He decided that there was nothing else to follow so he pulled out his gun and continued slowly.
Upon reaching the destination he was greeted by a clearing with a pair of tents, a central fire and two people with their backs turned to him talking.
"H-hands up" Carter said, fumbling with the shock of his situation.
He aimed his revolver at the group, they turned around and he could recognise two of them as one female with almost bleach blonde hair,piercing blue eyes and pale skin and a male with dark tan skin with messy black hair.
Both of them seemed about Carter's age, fifteen.
The first boy spoke up, staring at Carter like he was a toddler making play threats.
"Ey, pal. What are you doing with that little thing, put it down and come over here" he said casually.
Carter seemed to trust the boy and did so, walking into the clearing with his pistol aimed downwards but still in his hand and cocked.
"Who, who are you, and where am I" Carter asked impatiently.
The tanned boy replied,
"Save the questions for later, the names Hush, this is Bell" He said pointing to the girl,
"Nice to meet you" Bell said while walking up to Carter to shake his hand.
Hush lead Carter towards the central campfire after Carter introduced himself and Hush he stoked the fires before Carter questioned,
"So where the hell am I"
"In all honesty pal, no idea. Me and Bell have been camping out here after being stuck in this forest. We were in class together and we just, are here now. We have been seeing lights far north so tomorrow we're due to head off there, its always good to have a third person so if you want to join us, you're welcome. "
Carter hadn't realised that it was getting darker and nodded in agreement before Hush showed him to a tent and Carter fell asleep almost immediately.
But what awaited him in his dreams was far worse than the empty planes of snow.
He was walking through what seemed to be a ruined town, to the sides he saw other children, looking at him like he was a completely foreign being.
He felt his wrists tighten and when he looked down he saw they were binded, he continued to walk until he reached a podium.
He looked up and saw a boy, holding a thin machete. The boy in question had his face covered with a bandana, a black military beret and sunglasses, as well as that he donned a trench jacket.
"Carter, I sentence you to death due to treason against the Lilithian army" The boy spoke, in a rough, tortured voice. He pushed carter down onto his knees, raised his machete high and swept down in one swift motion. Carter quickly woke up.
"Hey, Carter? You ok?" Hush said, looking at him worried.
"Nothing, just a bit dream. Should we be going?" Carter replied, trying to not show his shock but failing.
"Yeah, I suppose so, just, uh. If you're feeling bad just tell me" Hush said cautiously.
After packing up camp the three headed off to the north.
To Carter's surprise there were zero wildlife, odd for a forest of this type.
Multiple hours of walking and more breaks that Carter would like to admit, they could see the top of a large building, not skyscraper height but tall nonetheless.
"It, it's civilisation" Bell said, a huge grin on her face.
"So, what should we do?" Carter asked, not sure how to react.
"Approach I guess" She replied
Continuing their walk towards the town lower buildings came into view, the closest seeming to be some improv form of gate with a fence surrounding the town. As they approached movement above the gate acted up and a voice sounded out, "Hey, you with Alessia?" Carter could tell it was male, but barely. It seemed muffled by something.
Carter flinched at the mention of Lilith, he could at least tell that was involved with this supposed Lilithian army he heard about in his dream.
"Who the hell is Alessia" Hush yelled back.
Whispering came back from the gate and it began to open. Inside Carter could see multiple people, all children or teens in what seemed to be a town square. The three walked in and was greeted by a boy in a skull styled paintball mask.
"Welcome, to Mayleaf town. I don't recognise you so you must be new. The names Nathan"
Carter recognised the voice as the person on the gate.
Nathan took of his mask and was revealed as a boy, about 17 or so with short, black hair with a small layer of stubble on his jaw.
Carter the noticed he was wielding a large rifle in his hand.
"Woah, thats a. Big gun" He noted.
"Thanks, M16. Not many left in this place"
"So Nathan, where the hell are we" Hush said, a hint of impatience in his tone was present.
"These lands, are aptly named the Deadlands, cause once you've gone through it, you'll be dead as you can imagine."
The three looked at each other, slightly worried.
"So who is this, Lilith you spoke of" Bell said.
Nathan's face took a turn on a grimmer path.
"Lilith is, well a manipulative warlord. She was one of the founders of Mayleaf but she, diverged. She created the Lilithian Monarchy Army, while the name is very egotistical they're her personal army who take control of the smaller settlements of kids who haven't made it here and enslave them. They occasionally strike here but we can fend them off" He said, pointing to his rifle.
"They don't sound fun" Carter responded.
"Well, you're not wrong. Their main base of operations is a death camp for those not part of the LMA".
"So what now?" Bell asked.
"You can stay here I guess, try the hotel way over there" Nathan replied, pointing to the largest building.
The three walked to the entrance and sat in the lobby awkwardly, not sure what to do. In the distance Carter could hear music playing, classical music to be exact. He stood up and walked towards the noise. His trip led him to a radio centre. He looked through the door and saw a girl, with white blonde hair typing away at a laptop.
"Hey, whatsu-" Carter tried to greet her but before he could finish his sentence she shuddered violently and cupped her hands on her ears
She looked like a scared deer.
Carter lowered his voice,
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"My, my name's Ginny. What is yours"
Carter could tell she was a bit different,
"Um, well names' Carter. What are you doing there?" He said, trying to look at her laptop.
"Do not look, I'm writing a code for cleaning the lighting malfunctions with a sweep verification of the resistor capabilities". She said very bluntly.
"Ah, yeah well I'll leave you to that" Carter said slightly baffled.
He walked back to the hotel and followed the others who were starting to walk up the stairs. They found a vacant room with three beds, Hush crashed on the couch and Carter and Bell both lay down on both beds and fell asleep.
"Carter get up!", he jolted up, smoke filled his nose and he saw an orange glow emanate from one side of the hallway connected to the door. He grabbed his revolver and his bag and ran out. To the right the exit was blocked by a roaring pyre of fire, he turned to the left and saw about five kids, he saw Hush and Bell in the crowd.
"Quick, to the window!" Bell yelled.
He rushed to the group and looked out the window, it was a two story drop but seemed do able. In the courtyard of the hotel he saw a kid holding a massive flamethrower, scorching the building. Carter slowly lifted his leg over the open windowsill and jumped down. He hit the ground hard, his legs ached. But he was still in it. He raised his revolver to the kid with the flamethrower, shut his eyes and fired. He opened his eyes and saw the kid still standing, but now staring at him with grim intent in his eyes.
"Shit" Carter muttered, before running to a small brick wall for cover, but on the way he dropped his revolver. Carter heard footsteps approaching him, accompanied by maniacal laughter. To his side the kid appeared. Carter shut his eyes counting until his death.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Then the sound of gunfire in the distance opened and Carter felt himself being doused in something wet.
"Oh god, oh no no no" He thought, opening his eyes to see himself covered in blood. He let out a streak of screams that he would definitely not recount at a later date.
He looked at the killer of his figurative grim reaper and saw Nathan, walking towards him. Nathan picked up the revolver and chucked it to Carter.
"Get up, we're under attack by the LMA" Nathan said quickly.
The rest of the group were already down.
Bell was at the front, briskly walking towards the corner of the hotel courtyard, leading to the main street. As she turned she looked down the street, raised her hand to point at something and fell to the ground. Hush yelled out in anger but Nathan pushed to the front and trained his rifle at the corner, while signalling for the others to move back.
Carter stood just behind Nathan with his revolver at the ready.
Carter heard laughing, coming from the corner. But not the normal laughter you would expect, maniacal laughter.
Around the corner came a boy, but not any boy. He wore a skull styled half balaclava, scrappy jeans and on his shirt a red rose and bullet. It became clear the laughing was from him. He turned his hand to reveal a long revolver. His eyes stared directly at Carter, an expression of bloodlust was painted across the visible top half of his face. He ran at Carter as he pulled out his significantly smaller revolver and aimed it at the crazed boy running at him, he fired once but missed. He was 7 metres away before Nathan tackled him to the ground and went to town punching him. Carter watched in relief, but not for long as in the brawl he saw a flash of silver and then red. Natan had been stabbed while the boy jumped up and ran off
Footsteps approached and multiple kids holding guns appeared, aforementioned guns searching for Carter. Carter's group ran to the closest building, the radio building. They arrived to see Ginny sitting in a corner, hands over ears and rocking back and forth.
"Wait a sec, her autism kicks up when she's scared" Nathan said, gently.
Hush shut and locked the door and took role of the people in the building. Aside from him, Nathan and Carter only two others remained, a boy with dark messy hair stood awkwardly, panic mildly spread across his face and a girl, with long brown curly hair, and she was standing there without a worry on her face.
"Quite the contrast" Hush noted to himself.
The girl walked up to him, stuck out her hand in a gesture that indicated a handshake from Hush and said.
"Hey, names Kate. You?"
"Um, well my names Hush"
Hush was a bit put off by her optimism after what had just gone down.
"Crazy thing thats happening huh" Kate said.
This put Hush off more, she seemed overly optimistic.
The boy looked up and acknowledged Hush.
"Ey, I'm uh, Collin"
"Attention!" Nathan said, a grin on his face.
"Since this is an obvious invasion by the LMA we need a way out, and I think I've found our ticket"
"Theres a large system of tunnels under here and inside them is a safe house and a way out, and the entrance in this very building."
Nathan walked over to a shelf holding old tapes and tipped it over.
The noise of it hitting the floor made Ginny shudder violently.
But as promised, behind the shelf was a small circular opening, big enough for someone to fit through. One by one they filed in and walked through the tunnel system.
It was relatively clean and clearly not a sewer, which made Carter more suspicious of what this tunnel was used for previously. After navigating through the winding tunnels Nathan stopped the group and pointed out a room off the right side of their current tunnel. They walked inside and the first thing Carter saw was guns, guns galore. They were hung on a rack on nearly all of the walls, underneath were crates. When Nathan managed to open one it was revealed to be full of ammunition, food and body armour.
"Jeez, this is enough weaponry to supply a small army".
"And it probably was intended to, we found this place when we first found Mayleaf" Nathan explained.
Carter took out his revolver and noted it was jammed, he put it to rest. He looked and picked up the closest weapon next to him, a classic AK47. He picked it up with a smile on his face.