"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
―Mark Twain
Hey. I really don't know why I'm writing this; I just needed to get it out of my head. Sorry for so many stories and so little updates, I just keep having little urges and I needed to write this. I may be updating this a bit slow.
Enjoy!
Luke's Pov
Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. Stop. Click. Skim. Escape. Scroll. Scroll. Scroll.
This is my life. My friends and I spend our lives on computers. Forget school. Forget sports. At one point, there was a time for that. Now, our lives are consumed with the escape button.
It didn't used to be that way. We used to have fun, running around, swimming, playing as children in the sun. Nothing was the same after The Bug.
The Bug. The Bug is the reason we are in this mess we called 'life'. We never see kids under age thirteen or any adults over age nineteen.
In total, there are about 50 of us. All teenagers' ages thirteen through twenty are transported here. Why? Well, we don't really know. We've never seen anybody younger than thirteen or older than nineteen. On someone's twentieth birthday, they just disappear. Just like that. When a kid hits thirteen, they are poofed here. None of us understand why this is happening.
However, we do know how. Not the exact details of what the kids go through to get transported here, but we know how The Bug works.
Actually, we don't know all the details of how. Just most of them. Okay, some. Alright! We only know a few basic details on how The Bug works.
But we do know how The Bug originated. That much we have figured out.
The Bug started on the Internet. What hasn't? It was a virus invented by a company called FATE. Fight Against Toxic Encephalopathy. Toxic Encephalopathy is just a term for brain disease, damage, or malfunction. FATE was supposed to fight against mutations.
The opposite occurred. FATE didn't obliterate mutations. They created them.
The Bug was the messenger, the USB that connected the mutations and technology. FATE spent most of their early years researching mutations. How they work, what they do, how they can be controlled. Eventually, they were able to create technology-based mutations. The Bug was the USB that transferred the mutation files to the Internet. On the Internet, the mutations ran wild. The mutations infected one site after another. At first, the only side effects of a mutant attack were the site's demolition and a virus that infected your computer or laptop.
Soon, the effects escalated.
Nobody knows how, but the mutants soon carried some sort of sickness, a disease that could not be cured. People in the real world were killed by the technological mutations. The mutants could slither right out of your screen.
The first dead bodies weren't taken seriously. A heart attack here, a mysterious murderer there. Soon, the amount of victims increased. A few were cut open, bleeding to death. Many were strangled. Some were electrocuted. Still others were sliced into pieces. The variations increased as The Bug uploaded more and more files. FATE invented more and more ways to kill.
At first, it was just a game for them. They would experiment with the mutations, trying to upload the maximum amount of commands on how to kill. Innocent people, teenagers, adults, and small children alike, would die for no legitimate purpose. They would die to please FATE.
Soon, FATE lost control. The Bug was hungry. It was hungry for more, wanting more, needing more to survive. FATE couldn't provide for it, so The Bug created a mind of its own. Actually, FATE unintentionally created a mind for it. One scientist wondered what it was like if the mutations were given a brain with the thought capabilities of a human, so he scanned his own brain and sent the files to The Bug. The Bug saved some for itself and distributed copies to every single mutant. The mutants now owned the mind of a genius. They found a way to travel from site to site, killing everyone in their path. They found a way to murder someone at a computer screen, delete the site they were on, and leave before their own file was deleted. Every single worker at FATE was killed.
However, The Bug is not just the head of a cold-blooded killing machine now. It is the general of a deadly, invincible army that kills on sight. It sends out scouts with soldiers behind them, just in case of an attack. The Bug is the only thing that knows of its weakness. Nobody else understands how it works, much less how to defeat it.
The Bug decided that it needed kids to do…well, we're not sure yet. It was the thing that sends us out here, on a remote island-thing. The Bug wipes our memory (leaving only our names, ages, and birthdays) and plops us down here. The island isn't that big, but it doesn't need to be. We're the only people here. Only about fifty of us are ever here at a time.
I've been here since The Bug took over. I was fourteen. Now, I'm nineteen. My birthday is coming up in a few months. After that…I don't really know where I'll go. Maybe I'll die. Maybe I'll go back to the real world. Maybe I'll become a part of the computer. Maybe The Bug will even turn me into some sort of mutant. I have no idea.
On our little island, there's about 50 kids (I think I've mentioned that before, but oh well.). I'm the oldest. There were a few before me, but they turned twenty and disappeared. Our island is surrounded by water. Salt water, as far as you can see. Once, some kids tried to swim away, or build a boat, or something. It didn't work. Every time someone tries to escape, a storm swirls above the ocean and sharks appear. Nobody makes it out alive.
On the island, it's mostly thick forest. The water is the area around the island, which (a far as we know) is a perfect circle. The beach is a thin circle, like the crust on the Earth. The mantle is the forest. It takes up most of the land. In the middle, there's an area of dirt. It's what would be the outer core (since I'm already comparing this island to Earth's inside, I guess I'll keep that analogy). It's not as large as the mantle, but not as small as the inner core. In this dirt area, we built cabins, a training center, and a dining area. The inner core has always been there. It is this small, completely metal room. We call it The Box. Inside The Box, The Bug supplied us with computers. We aren't sure why. To kill us, maybe, but why got to the trouble of wiping someone's memory transporting them all the way to an island in the middle of nowhere just to kill them in a complicated way? It doesn't add up.
The Bug left me only with one memory: my name and age. I am Luke Castellan. I am nineteen years old. My birthday is August 21. Today is May 19.
I've made friends here. One girl, Thalia Grace, is my best friend. She and I have been together since the beginning. She's the same age as me, only her birthday is December 22. Then, there's her brother, Jason Grace. He's seventeen. Piper McLean, his girlfriend, is also seventeen, along with his best friend, Leo Valdez. Leo is almost as scrawny as Nico di Angelo. Nico, the same age as Jason, is smaller than some fourteen-year-olds, and is often picked on. However, the people who pick on him always underestimate his strength. There's this one girl, Clarisse La Rue, but I don't really count her as one of my 'friends'. She's a huge bully, always picking on the younger kids. And then there's Percy Jackson. Mister Perfect himself. Every girl is in love with him, but he only loves one back: Annabeth Chase. Both are eighteen years old. Annabeth is our brains and Percy is our peacemaker. Sort of. Percy hates it when others fight, so he decides to break it up by fighting with the kid who started it. Percy is the best swordfighter we have ever seen. I'm pretty good myself. Only Percy and Thalia can beat me. Oh, and there's Frank, Hazel, Reyna, Travis, Connor, Katie, and so many more. Frank and Hazel are seventeen. They've liked each other for ever, and everybody says that they really need to get together. Reyna is eighteen. She used to have a crush on Jason, but when he started dating Piper, she got over him. Travis, Connor, and Katie are sixteen. Travis and Connor are identical twins that enjoy playing pranks on everybody else. They keep the island in high spirits. Travis and Katie hate each other, or so everyone thinks. Silena, another one of my friends, totally 'ships' them. Silena is nineteen, like Thalia and I. Her birthday just passed. It was April 15. Charles Beckendorf, her boyfriend, poofed a few weeks ago. Silena was crushed. Beckendorf was the solidity, the backbone of the island. Everybody thought that maybe, just maybe, he could survive the poof. Unfortunately, he didn't. When he turned twenty, he disappeared. We searched the island, hoping that he might have run. We didn't really expect to find him, but we did it for Silena.
I'm not sure how many people I've witnessed poof. Many. I've been here a long time, seemingly forever. Beckendorf was the worst hit we've ever had.
Eventually, though, we got over it. Not completely, but enough to keep working.
What do we do, you ask? We work on computers. We use the computers, trying to find a weakness in The Bug. That's our one and only job. Aside from that, we hunt for food. Animals roam wild in the woods, killing anything and anyone in their way. Only the bravest and best fighters are allowed to enter the woods. Me, Thalia, Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Reyna, Frank, Jason, Connor and Travis Stoll, Chris Rodriguez, and Beckendorf. Only twelve are allowed to go each year. We were chosen. Only problem is, our number was decreased to eleven since Beckendorf poofed. As far as I know, nobody has ever died on a hunt before. Sure, people have gotten injured, but nobody has actually ever died here before.
Every day, we wake up and eat together. Next, we each take our seat in The Box. We work for awhile. Then, the eleven of us leave to go hunt. The others eat lunch in the dirt area while we eat lunch in the woods. In the woods, we hunt for food. We hunt and are hunted by the monsters that run free. A lot of us have gotten injured in the past, and trust me when I say it's not fun. After we get a lot of meat and food and stuff, we go back and put the food in our inventory. Each lunch and dinner, we eat the food we caught.
That's our life. It's not much of a life, but it is what we do.
LINE BREAK
"Hey." I swung my legs over the bench and sat next to Thalia. "What's up?"
"Oh, the usual. You know, near starvation, innumerable cuts and injuries, and absolutely no knowledge of the outside world." She grinned sarcastically.
"Good times." I nodded, digging into my food. Today, our cook, Will Solace, treated us to bacon and sausage from a wild boar we caught yesterday.
"It'll take us forever to catch another one of these." Thalia muttered. "Seriously, do you know how hard it was to kill this?"
"I remember." I said. "Travis is still in the Infirmary. But if we don't eat it now, it'll go bad."
"Yeah, I guess."
Percy and Connor sat next to me. "Rough day?"
"Still sore from chasing that pig yesterday."
"Better than Travis." Connor scoffed. "His leg hasn't healed at all."
"Really?" Annabeth approached our table, sitting next to Thalia. "I would think that, based on the size, it would have healed at least a tiny bit."
"Yeah, nah."
Jason, Piper, and Leo came up together, plopping down next to Annabeth. "Hey guys." Jason nodded to his sister.
Reyna took her seat next to Percy. Nico joined her. He picked at his meal, barely eating anything.
"Nico, you need to eat!" Hazel, Nico's sister, chided. "You're so underweight. Eat something!"
"Hazel!" Nico complained. "I'm just not hungry."
"Not hungry, my butt!"
"Come on, Nico." Frank chimed in, sitting next to Hazel. "Please eat."
"I don't want to. I don't need to."
Silena silently sat next to Frank. Tear tracks were stained on her pretty cheeks, her eyes still red from crying. I looked over at Thalia, who is already examining Silena, concerned. Katie tried to comfort Silena, talking to her soothingly.
Most of the meal was eaten in silence, everybody just keeping to their selves.
"Well, well, well. Look who we have here. The Loser Table." Clarisse laughed at her own joke. "Haven't you two disappeared yet?" She aimed the last part at me and Thalia.
"Not yet, Clarisse." I smiled. "You'll have to put up with us for a little while longer."
"When are you taking the plunge, Clarisse?" Percy asked venomously, glaring at her for sort-of insulting us.
"My birthday is January twenty-second. I'm not going anywhere for awhile. How long are you around, Prissy? A year? Maybe two?"
"Next year, August eighteenth." Percy answered. "But you'll be gone before I am."
"That'll be a relief." Clarisse muttered, stalking off to a different table to sit with Chris Rodriguez.
"Ignore her." Annabeth held Percy back as he got up, making sure he didn't go after Clarisse.
A bell rang, signaling that everybody needed to go to The Box and get to work.
"Aw, man, I don't think I can stand."
"Well, you'll have to. We're gonna have to catch another animal in a few hours." I helped Leo to his feet.
We entered the room together, taking our assigned seats. I sat in between Thalia and Annabeth. Each of The Hunters (as we were appropriately named) sit close to the door. That way, when our hours are up, we can slip out, virtually unnoticed.
Annabeth studied the screen in concentration. I almost laughed at her 'enthusiasm'. Nobody likes this job, but concentration is the closest to eagerness anyone has ever gotten.
I logged on with dread. Yesterday, I was almost attacked by a mutant. Any attack means certain death.
I scrolled, searching the Internet for a website not infected or already searched. Any information we find immediately goes to The Archives. We named it that to sound official, but it's really just a collection of Word documents installed on the computers. We copy and paste new information. The information goes into a folder labeled The Archives. Later, some techies study it, sucking all possible information about The Bug out of it.
Annabeth gasped. "I got one!" She whispered. Nobody ever talks in The Box. It's an unwritten rule. She quickly copied the information and pasted it onto another document, sending it to The Archives.
"Nice." Percy whispered back, on the other side of Annabeth.
"I can't wait until we actually get to go out again." Thalia sighed. "I hate this job."
"Doesn't everyone?" I asked sweetly.
"Yeah, but I have a special hate for this."
"That's nice."
"Shut up, Luke!" Thalia teased.
I laughed silently. "Okay, okay. Wanna do the game again?"
"You know I'll beat you."
"Oh, sure." I smirked. "You'll absolutely demolish me."
"You know I will."
"Three…"
"Two…."
"One…"
"Go!" We each hurriedly searched for a new site. Our little game is easy to understand but extremely difficult to even finish. Whoever finds a new website leads the hunt. Since Thalia and I are the oldest, we get to choose how to hunt. When we were younger, we broke up into pairs and hunted that way. I enjoy that way, but Thalia like to hunt in two groups of five instead of five groups of two. Neither of us has actually finished the game, so we usually end up switching every other week. Ever since we were young, Thalia and I have always hunted together. In the first few weeks, we would shyly ask each other if we wanted to be partners again. Now, it's simply assumed. We're partners. No questions asked.
Of course, I've always had a crush on her. I've never really told her, though. I don't want to make things awkward between us, so I keep my feelings to myself.
An hour passed, neither of us finding a site. That was normal. We've basically found most of the information that could ever be found. Annabeth's find was lucky. A bell rang, and The Hunters left.
"Finally!" Thalia exclaimed.
Reyna lead us up to the weapon room, where we each kept our hunting weapons. Of course, each of The Hunters has a knife that we kept close on our person at all times (just in case of an emergency) but our real weapons we kept in a shed.
We went in, single-file style. There wasn't much room, so we needed to wait for each person to locate and grab their weapon before the next repeated the same process.
As always, Clarisse shoved her way forward. "Out of my way, losers!" Not many people actually took offense at her insults. New kids did, of course. Percy did. Other than them, everybody pretty much knew not to mess with her. Thalia, Percy, and I are the best fighters, and Clarisse can't beat us. We're the only ones she can't beat, though, so she picks on everybody else. She taunts us a lot, but we usually don't let it get to us.
Clarisse found her spear, Maimer, easily. Next, I grabbed my sword. As I examined my sword for any new scrapes or scars (courtesy of the Stoll brothers) the others had congregated before me, each with their weapon of choice. Travis was absent, still spending time in the Infirmary after our last Hunt. Clarisse pretended she was stabbing someone with her spear. Thalia gripped her spear anxiously. Percy flipped his sword in the air, catching it in odd ways to impress Annabeth. Annabeth ignored Percy, lost in space. Her eyes portrayed the thoughts spinning a million miles an hour in her head. Reyna tapped her sword in the ground, ignoring Connor who was attempting to smooth-talk her, his hands swinging a dagger around as easily as a doll. Piper and Jason were talking, Piper looking down into her dagger and Jason trying to convince her of something, his golden sword forgotten in his hand. Frank stood awkwardly in the corner, shouldering his bow nervously. Chris stood next to him. They weren't friends, but not enemies either.
"Okay!" I interrupted before Connor could do anything rash. "Let's get out there and kill something!"
Clarisse let out a whoop, and everyone followed her, running out to the wilderness.
"My turn." I grinned at Thalia. Five groups of two today.
"Alright, alright." Thalia got everyone's attention once we were in our clearing in the woods. "Five groups of two today. Everyone get in your pairs."
Connor raised his hand. "Um, my partner is hurt."
"Someone adopt this small child!" I pleaded, teasing Connor playfully.
Clarisse had lost her partner, Beckendorf. Percy and Annabeth were together. Jason and Chris. Reyna and Frank. Thalia and I. Usually, Connor would be with Travis, but Travis was injured, so Clarisse was forced to work with him.
"I'll take the runt." Clarisse grunted, snatching the back of Connor's shirt and dragging him away. Connor yelped and scrambled after her.
"Okay, everyone. Remember the rules. Stay safe. Don't purposely injure each other. Don't leave the island." The last rule was a joke. Nobody left the island unless they wanted to commit suicide. And nobody wanted to commit suicide here.
"Got it. See ya in six hours." Everyone set their watches for the six-hour timer and left in different directions to find food.