Author's Note: This is my first Gone Series story, because really everyone has their own story in every world, and what some people see as important may seem useless to another. So these are the lives of those in the FAYZ who aren't as 'important' as the real characters.

Takes place right after Lies.

WARNINGS: Contains spoilers from Gone, Hunger, Lies, and some mentionings from Plague (nothing you wouldn't find in summaries) I would rate this along the lines of PG-13 for swearing, violence, and some sexual content(minor references)

Any and all feedback is welcome :D

I am not Michael Grant

Chapter 1

"I said get over it or get out!" Jace's cold blue eyes bore into a boy a little bit younger than him.

"How did you know my hand?" the boy screamed right back.

"Luck."

"Luck my ass, Ace." A boy of average height stood next to the other. "You stacked the deck huh?"

"What are you talking about, Tick? You won two outta five games." Jace was also known as 'Ace' ever since he was the number one player on sports teams and in card games; he cracked his knuckles and stuck his hands in his back pockets.

"Hey guys, let's just cool it, you wanted to play, not his fault you bet your Bertos here." The other boy, Dwight, had long brown hair like most kids in the FAYZ and stood behind Ace.

"I'm closing up anyway, so out." Jace nodded to the door and the three boys wandered out. He needed to shut down his little casino early some days. He used to live in Reno, Nevada, and he never remembered his uncle shutting down his casino early, but Ace didn't have guards to watch the place.

He flicked his blond hair out of his eyes and gave a quick shuffle to the deck of cards. He looked between his fingers, and he could see the prints on the opposite side of cards, an ace of diamonds; his favorite card.

Tucking the card into his back pocket, he scooped up the handful of Bertos he won, and tucked a gun he found in his dad's stuff into the back of his pants, he decided it was time to go shopping.

~x~X~x~

Max rattled the plastic crate he stayed in when his owner worked in the tiny plastic house where he grew his veggies. Tiny carrots were starting to sprout up in the little miss matched boxes. Demi patted the crate his little white rabbit sat in. His small hands were caked with dirt from working with his plants.

"Demi," called another voice from their house on Alameda Avenue. Demi's older brother, Will came outside.

Will looked just like Demi, except an older version. They both had the sandy colored hair that Will kept trimmed neatly. Their green eyes were the different shades but Will's were hardened by the burn from the Big Fire on one cheek. Demi was still innocent, and his eyes were soft at eight years old, five years younger than Will.

"Look Will, mine and Max's carrots are almost ready!" Demi jumped to his feet and dusted his hands off on the salty gym shorts he wore.

"Not yet, big guy." Will picked up the crate that Max was kept in and a smaller crate filled with a few tomatoes that were grown and could be traded for some fish, or something. "We need to go to the market, Demi."

Demi grinned but looked at his brother's burn mark on his cheek that he got from trying to protect their house from looters in the Big Fire. "Lemme get my stuff."

"I'll put Max up for you." Will watched Demi run into the house while he followed behind. Will placed Max in a little cupboard they kept him in when they went out to keep him safe from people who would like some fresh meat, he then grabbed a few items from another cupboard. He pulled on his baseball gloves, cleats, and cap before sticking the metal bat through the back of his belt, it kept his hands free and the bat at hand. "Don't forget your helmet!"

Demi ran out into the entryway, dressed like his brother but instead of a bat, he had a batting helmet on his head, the tomato crate under his arm.

"Let's go, big guy." Will watched Demi march out of the house as he locked the door and followed. He wished he didn't have to be so cautious, but it wasn't being around a lot of these people that worried him, it was them being around Demi.

~x~X~x~

Kristo's greasy black hair covered up the entire back of his neck as he dug through another empty cupboard. "Come on," he mumbled to himself.

He was always a little on the strange side, but this vice of his was a welcome one with the thugs at his old school. Coates had plenty of druggies, in fact there was one worse with sniffing stuff than him. That weird little kid that always had paint around his mouth, Kristos used to get high with him, but he couldn't quite remember his name anymore.

He found an old white bottle in the back of the cupboard. Bleach wasn't his favorite but it would have to work. He slumped next to cupboard opening the white bottle and giving it a small shake to hear the liquid sloshing around. He poured it into a cup and covered his mouth and nose with it while taking large breaths.

"What the hell?" He looked into the cup and swished it around. He took a swig of the clear liquid and spit it out. "Soap!" He threw the cup across the floor. "Who puts soap in a bleach bottle?"

"Dammit," he cursed as he sat back against shelves and knocked his head back against it once…twice, and then climbed to his feet.

"Now I need to find Howard." He started for the door to head to the Market. "And something to trade with."

~x~X~x~

Aerik hoisted his axe up on his broad shoulder. His identical twin sister, Athene, sat on the edge of their little green Coleman trailer. They had the trailer since before the FAYZ, it was for loading their old four wheelers on and drive out to the Stefano Rey to go camping. Now, they fashioned a harness that they could hook up to themselves and pull it up and down from Trotter's Ridge, after they loaded it with as much wood as they could pull. People didn't need it as heat, but it was easy to sell for cooking.

The twins were often referred to as the lumberjacks. It didn't help that their last names were Jack. They were quiet kids that kept to themselves most the time. They were always unpopular in school, they had both been overweight back before the FAYZ and a lot of people had teased them. After that thick barrier came up and food started to run out, they had the advantage, they had more excess weight they could afford to lose. That and all the camping food they had stored was helpful. After all that they were healthy thriving citizens of the FAYZ and were some of the few that were really capable of hard labor, they looked almost athletic.

Aerik sat down next to Athene, sipping some of their water; they had a secret pond back on the Ridge that they drank from. "Are they still itching?" he asked as he watched her rub her arms.

Athene shook her head, her dark red braid swung from side to side. "No, not too much. Just a little when wood chips get stuck."

He searched her dark brown eyes that were identical to his. "You sure?"

"Positive," she told him with a grin and ruffled his tuft of dark red hair."Just let me shake them out a bit."

Athene stood back, away from her brother. She rubbed her hands together and then ran them up to her elbows simultaneously. Thick, spiky, scales grew from her skin, on her right arm faster than her left. Each arm was lined with inch long scales with smaller ones interwoven with them. They were all sharp and strong; perfect for cutting through wood. Athene grabbed a thick pine tree bow and scraped it over each arm, brushing any wood chips out.

Sighing, she retracted the scales much like she had done to get them out. "Much better. Now, no one is going to get this to town but us."

The lumberjacks each strapped on their side holster sitting neatly against their left ribs that they each kept a .45 mm pistol in and helped hook each other into the harness and settled into the daylong hike back into Perdido Beach.

This was just a normal day for the Jack twins in The FAYZ.