Disclaimer- I don't own anything but Annette and Zoe. Epic Games owns Gears of War.
EMERGENCE DAY...
My sister and I sat in the cold, dark, dank hurricane room underground with our guard dogs, Jackel and Balto, listening to the pandemonium erupting outside. Every ten minutes the ground would shake wildly, and the creaking of the walls in our old, aging house could be heard from underground. All we could do is wait for the silence, the silence that never came. The room that strangely paralleled a cardboard box started closing in on Zoe, and she never stopped trembling. The affectionate licks from both of our dogs, and my desperate pleads to "WAKE UP, ZOE!" didn't even remotely rise her from her traumatized state. There we sat. Listening to the blood-curdling screams and the deep-voiced war cries. Screeches that could only be compared to the howls of the boogeyman, which was supposedly non-existent. 'Till now.
Minutes, hours, and days all seemed to blend together. The time that we had sat in that dark room was seemingly never ending. 'Till the silence came. So quiet, it was disturbing. I tethered Jackel to my hip and Balto to hers, and we slowly walked up the stairs of the cardboard box, and I slid aside the round, heavy metal disc that resembled a drain cover.
Around us was death. Non-stop carnage for miles out could still be seen. Zoe snapped too in an instant, as soon as she saw the battered, bloodied, and beaten bodies of the next door neighbors, she ran for the house, only to be stopped by Balto. Somehow, that dog knew only trouble was to come from going inside that house, and Zoe sensed it too. A boundless minute passed in silence. Both of us knew our parents were dead, and crying wouldn't help. We knew we would mourn, but now was not the time. We had but one choice. Survive.
TWELVE YEARS LATER- JOINING THE COG...
Filling out enlistment papers. Oh joy. Well, it's either this, or some stranded camp. I am NOT putting up with Franklin and his stupid obsession with his Junker. I can't believe we're cousins. "No more favors, Annette!" Yeah, right. He still owes me ten friggin' bucks because the cougars won, and I'm the one who took care of HIM, he owes ME the favor. That idiot…
Sudden realization washed over her. Fertility, the one thing that would decide what she would be spending the next portion of her life doing. If she didn't tell a lie, she had two options, and those options weren't even up for her choosing. The COG would sit her behind a desk, or send her to a breeding farm. Sitting behind a desk would do nothing but drive her mad, and the breeding farms… not worth thinking about. She wrote down her name, age, sex, ethnicity, weapon specialty, possible sicknesses/inabilities...infertility.
Half an hour later she sent in the papers at one of the last post offices standing, thinking about the possible training exercises they put their "rookies" through. She was no rookie, not even close. That was another thing; Franklin had taught her to shoot a weapon.
It's the ONLY thing he taught me to do... other than keep him in check when that bigmouth of his ran away with him before he ended up owing "favors". Why was he so hung up on that? She thought.
She knew she would be sparring, and that would come easy to her. Kick boxing and wrestling are the two things she watched as a kid. From UFC, to WWE, she taught herself every single thing she saw on T.V., and those moves have been called into action more than once, but only kickboxing. She knew how to defend herself quite well without a weapon. These thoughts of preparation swam through her head, and before she allowed herself to brood over 'her first day in gears school', she needed to blow off some steam.
Annette drove from the post office to one of few basketball courts left. No one else knew this place existed; they were too hung up on Thrash ball and worshiped "THE COLE TRAIN!" She herself was a cougars fan, but she was mainly loyal to Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and above all, Michael Jordan. No one knew about these legends except her, and her family, thanks to the recorded reruns of the last basketball championship game, the last summer Olympics, and the last All-Star basketball event. She carried a rulebook with her at all times, like a bible, and basketball was her religion. Every other day she came here with her father and practiced. She wanted to grow up and either earn an athletic or academic scholarship, and play college basketball. Ever since she found Franklin a week after emergence day, she came here and played by herself. Practicing and building her strength, like she was preparing for the biggest basketball event of the in some sort of twisted way, she was. She was preparing to become a gear, one of the biggest life changers. And when she was a gear, she would find her sister. No matter what.
- END
A.N- This is my first writing experience, EVAR, and the two halves of story above will be divided into two chapters and extended. I update by reviews, so like, if I get 2 or 3 reviews with constructive criticism, I will update please, no flamers. I don't think I could handle that on my first story, so please, be gentle: D I don't know where I'm going with this story. I may put light romance in it, who knows. I'm new to all of this, so uh... yeah enjoy. Ill update when I get feedback, which is TOTTALY welcome
-CLAIRRISS