Chapter 1 part A: meet the team

"ALL OF YOU LITTLE BABY MEN ARE DEAD! AHAHAHA!" Boomed the voice of the iron Goliath as it laid waste to the defences we tried to put against it. Nothing seemed to work against this big bastard, it didn't matter how many sleeping darts were fired or how much Crit-a-cola was drunk, we were giving this thing everything we had and it still showed no signs of weakening or slowing down...but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, lemme start from the very beginning. My name is Scott Trekker, which my mother always said was ironic considering how easy it was for me to get lost or forget something. I'm sixteen years of age and soon to be seventeen in a couple months. I was never the popular kid nor was I the typical nerd you see getting pushed into lockers in American movies, instead I was the kinda guy who grew up overall enjoying life with no one really having anything against me, I had a loving family and basically everything I could ever need. Of course all of that's gone now...how the hell we ended up here is still anyone's guess, but what we do know is that we need to get back. But for now let me tell you how this all started...

"24th July 2016", this was what greeted me in the morning when I lazily slid out of bed to shut my alarm off, I hated mornings then and I shall continue to hate them until my last breath. Luckily for me, I had graduated from secondary school a year ago and now I'm working for a building firm and doing a course in building as the British government decrees that a child must stay in education until the age of eighteen, which I can understand if you're going into a career in psychology or fucking quantum mechanics, but if you were a guy or a girl that wanted to be a Trade worker like me or a waiter/waitress in a restaurant, the only "skills" you'd need is either the ability to know the difference between a hammer and a screw, or mastery of the phrase "do you want fries with that?". With Sunday's being my only days off I had arranged this week to meet friends for lunch and a movie in a city a few miles away from where I lived, the drive wouldn't be that long if you had a car, but because I wasn't seventeen yet the only form of transport I had was to either take the bus or go via my moped which in fairness didn't take much longer. After going through the unbelievably repetitive and mundane process of showering, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, making breakfast and washing up the dishes I then proceed to put on my biker jacket that had a batman symbol across the back and mount the bike, I turn on the ignition and listen in satisfaction as the machine purrs, happy with the condition of my Vehicle I put the bike into gear and set off down the streets.

*time skip bought to you by sandvich*

The day was still young when I arrived and turns out everyone was waiting on me to show up, I got on with plenty of people, sure, but these guys were my closest friends with a lot of us going way back. First to notice me was Danny Howerton, Danny is perhaps my oldest friend considering we've known each other since we were toddlers, he was always like the opposite of me and he still is now, he's about 5 ft 8" and only a couple inches shorter than me, his features are very defined and was the type of kid who seemed to naturally have a six pack, he was athletic and an absolute bugger to keep up with. I on the other hand have a mix of muscle and a small amount of fat on my body considering I only weigh about 12 stone, I'm not the sporty type at all and I'm more of a lover than a fighter if anything, but I still possess decent stamina and can lift respectable amounts of weight when working out I can assure you. Now Danny is the kind of Guy that upon noticing a friend, will tend to make a scene of it, "ahaha yo Scotty my man!" He shouted loud enough for the whole beer garden to hear and as he continued to cheer and chant like a football supporter still unaware that the location had now been consumed by awkward silence as Danny welcomed my presence the way only one of your closest friends could. "Hey Danny" I responded while laughing at his energetic nature and complete obliviousness to the strange looks he was receiving, that was an attribute all of my friends and myself Seemed to possess actually, since our early teen years we all seemed to adopt the ideology that you could be as weird as you wanted around strangers because chances are you'll never see them again. "How's life then Mr big shot?" Danny jabbed at me as he walked over to me with one of the cheekiest grins you'll ever see "not too bad lil man" I shot back putting him a headlock "hey! no fair, I wasn't ready!" Came Danny's slightly muffled voice as he jabbed me in the stomach and back in an attempt to free himself from the hold. "Ahaha ok tough guy" I finally said releasing him from the hold and couldn't help but snicker as I saw Danny's now red face due to the amount of struggling he was doing, "shut up!" he shouted playfully pushing me as we walked up to meet the rest of the gang.

We walked to the corner of the beer garden where everyone had taken up position around a large table simply talking about random stuff with the occasional laugh audible here and there.

"Well well well, look at what the cat finally dragged in" said a voice that cut through the conversation causing all the other voices to cease conversation to look in the same direction as the speaker, the voice in question belonged to Theodore Mclinn, Theo is a quick witted yet kind hearted soul with a seemingly endless curiosity and need to know more, this is why he would like to study the history and practice of medicine in London university. he moved to England a several years ago because his mother had been offered a better line of work in Bristol and so he moved out of his home town of Inverness. Danny and I met Theo at secondary school along with James Blackwill who was currently sat next to Theo with his eyes closed and his headphones in, even with the distance between us I could still hear the sound of classic rock that was being blasted out of his Dre beats. James was actually more quite than the rest of us but if he ever had anything to say, safe to say it would leave you in hysterics. James was always the comedian of our group but the only problem was that James had an undeniably dark sense of humour at times, and one that only we as his friends could tolerate, needless to say that what gets James laughing often gets him in trouble at the same time. Sat opposite Theo and James was two empty seats, and another occupied by the last member of the group that was able to make it. His name was Gabriel Connors, Gabriel was born in Birmingham however his parents moved to the UK all the way from Barbados, and while Gabriel speaks English clearly and perfectly , it's clear his voice is laced with a slight Jamaican twang. "What took you so long then eh?" Theo asked with a hint of playful amusement in his voice, this is because I'm known amongst the group for being clumsy and forgetful in fact so much so that James had cleverly taken my surname of "Trekker" and twisted it into "Wrekker". "Had to refuel on the way here" I said returning the smile to him "why not just take the bus?" Gabriel asked raising an eyebrow "wasn't another one due to arrive for another two hours" I casually said sitting down beside him with Danny taking up his place next to James again, who still showed no sign of acknowledgement towards anything that was being said 'most likely asleep' I thought. We quickly started up conversation again about the most random and trivial of subjects for a couple more minutes before the drinks arrived...