A boy about 15 raced through the destroyed streets of New York City. He jumped over a fallen piece of someone's wall, looking behind him as he did.
The pursuers were dressed in black combat boots, standard military fatigues, armored Kevlar shirts and form fitting, full faced, standard issue C.E.L.L. helmets.
There were two, all beefy and 100% muscle.
Hired mercenaries, trained to kill nuisances like the boy they were currently chasing.
The boy was well known among the occupation, continuously stealing, breaking in and out of buildings, and just generally harassing any C.E.L.L. members he could.
The mercenaries suddenly stumbled then one fell over, tripping the other.
The boy stopped running and turned around, he held a 90mm smithon-wesson in his hand.
The gun was way outdated, created a good 180 years prior, but it was the best the boy could get his hands on.
The boy approached the fallen mercenaries.
The men were tied to a wall, hands and feet chained to a drainage pipe.
"Not so tough now, huh" he said. "Yeah, how much do you like being the victim now?"
The boy turned to see another 15 year old, wearing the same tattered cloths as him, holding the same gun as him, standing looking at him.
"Hi Jason, looks like you got them first this time." Said the original boy.
"Hey, you were the distraction Gregor." Said Jason.
The two friends quickly searched the unconscious mercenaries
"This one's got a gun!" Gregor said, in mock astonishment.
The boys pooled the resources they had gathered during the last 3 days of hunting.
They got 2 smg's, 1 combat knife, 1 tactical throwing knife, 4 magnums, 1 heavy assault rifle, and a nanotech datapad.
"Come on, we need to get back to camp, the kids are probably worried about us." Jason sighed at the word kids.
"Are they really kids anymore?" he asked. Gregor's eyes turned dark, cold, and sad. "No" he said, and walked down the alley.
15 minutes later the two teens reached the camp, it was nothing special, an old building connected to an upturned mega-camper truck via underground passage.
The boys approached the building then suddenly dodged out of the way.
Two Mercenaries ran right by the boys, then stopped, turned, weapons raised. 4 shots were fired, the mercenaries slumped, 2 bullets holes in each of their chests.
The boys stepped out. Jason kicked one of the dead men in the face. "Idiot" he said as he stepped over the other corpse.
Gregor didn't give the dead men any more respect the Jason. He shot the man in front of him again just for the heck of it.
When Jason and Gregor walked into the half destroyed house they were greeted by a welcoming sight.
Lizzie, Mag, Alcatraz, Adrian, Ericoy, (ear-e-coy) and Jacob all sat around a gently pulsing fire.
Carolina and Zoey walked in moments later. As soon as Carolina saw Gregor, she flung herself around him.
Gregor hugged her back then walked over to a seat the Mag offered for him at the fire.
Gregor mentally snapped and image of the group before he sat down.
He rarely got to enjoy himself.
After terrorists attacked key points all around the United states, new York was abandoned, Gregor's mom and dad were killed when the Empire State building was bombed, now the city is infested with bandits, gang members, and everything in between. Gregor, Lizzie, and Mag, were orphaned after the State went down.
They tried to escape but Mag was almost crushed as the bridge collapsed. They were stranded along with Jason and his now orphaned family.
Jason, Adrian, and Zoey's family were close to Gregor's family when the Bombs went off, after they had to work together to survive.
Alcatraz they found, half dead buried under a pile of rubble, he was hard to miss even without the nanosuit on.
Alcatraz was chosen to be a superhuman solider against the terrorists. He was given the nanosuit. A suit of armor that would turn the wearer into a walking tank, a very fast walking tank.
Ericoy was, well, Gregor found him, half pinned under a boulder, gasping for breath, he was one of them.
The people Gregor tried so hard to forget because it caused him so much pain.
The place, filled with giant creatures, pale skinned, violet eyed humans, and her.
Gregor squeezed his eyes shut, he felt Carolina's reassuring hand on his shoulder. She knew what happened sometimes when he saw Ericoy, and Carolina was always there for him.
Jason was Carolina's cousin, that is how she ended up with Gregor and the rest, just surviving, and fighting like the rest of them.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
Gregor turned around and looked at the iron rebar door. He blinked twice and the door opened.
Two figures stood there, they pulled off there cloaks. Gregor nearly choaked on the bread in his mouth. The taller figure was not human, and definitely not human. He was 7 ½ feet tall, a giant rat with 2 black scars crisscrossing his gray fur. The other person was human, but different, they had pale skin, violet eyes, and silver hair.
"Ripred!" Lizzie sprinted into the big rat's arms. Ripred held the girl tight.
"Howard?" said Gregor stood up, cocking his head to one side.
Howard held out his hand, Gregor shook it.
Ericoy suddenly stood up. "Cousin?" he said, confused.
Howard looked past Gregor. His eyes widened. "Ericoy, how is it possible?" he said
Ericoy and Howard suddenly seemed to pick up a conversation.
Lizzie was talking to Ripred when Carolina attacked.
She was a blur of motion as she pinned the old rager to the wall then proceeded to ignore the curses coming from Ripred and slice him on each of his shoulders. "Feel familiar?" she asked.
Ripred grunted then shoved Carolina across the room, she positioned her feet to push off the wall, she rolled then sprinted back across the room, her knife flashed, Ripred dodged, swinging his tail at the same time, Carolina reached out, grabbing the tail. Ripred grunted in surprise then sliced at her with his claws. Carolina ducked then punched his stomach, Ripred flew, heads over tails across the room. Carolina reared back her hand to throw the knife, Gregor grabbed the hand and flipped her over. "CAROLINA!" he yelled. Carolina suddenly stopped struggling and opened her eyes, they were red and bloodshot and tears streaked her face. "He killed him! He killed Boston!" Carolina gasped before passing out.
Gregor looked up from his friends sleeping body. "What was she talking about?" Gregor talked softly, trying not to wake Carolina. Ripred motioned for Gregor to follow.
They walked down the hall to a room. Ripred went in first, then Gregor followed. Ripred suddenly spun around. "How do you know Carolina." He growled his sentence. Gregor remained calm. "She is my best friends cousin, and one of my best friends." He said. Ripred tapped his chin then began.
"About two years ago, I left the Underland to try to track you down, I was not prepared for what was happening. The Empire state building had just fallen and the city was in ruins. I ran into gang members and the occupation, yes I know what the occupation is Gregor, so moving on, finally when I thought I'd never find you, I ran, yes literally, into Carolina and her twin Brother Boston. I told them who I was looking for and they decided to help. We searched for weeks, finally I accidentally ran into the second largest gang besides the Occupation. They chased me back to our base camp, I thought I had lost them. That night while I was one watch duty they attacked, they got in to the camp by sheer force. Boston thought I had let them in. He attacked me, and in to process pinned me to the wall and sliced each of my shoulders Carolina saw the whole thing, so she saw me stab Boston through the gut in my attempt to escape. Before I got away, Carolina vowed to one day kill me, the same way I killed Boston.
Gregor shook his head. "Boston isn't dead, as both you and Carolina think, he is somewhere in the Underland, lying unconscious or in a coma somewhere."
"How do you know?" Ripred looked unconvinced. "Jason and I found his dying body and brought him to the Underland doctors, as you can see the overland ones are currently, uh... incapacitated." "After we did that well, we couldn't do much for the poor boy.