So all of the fans that heard about this crinegy Gone fanfic I wrote, lemme give you a bit of a backstory – Gone is a book by Michael Grant that features a fictional town called Perdido Beach, that suddenly gets covered by a 20 mile long, 20 mile wide, 20 mile everything energy dome, and everyone in the dome that's above 15 gets sent outside. Now the kids have to survive alone. It's a 6 (7 if you count the kind-of-mini series Monster) book series, and I highly recommend it.
Sound interesting? I wrote a really cringe fanfic on it when I was like 'that story looks good, and that one, and that one', shoved 'em all together and inserted some OCs I made up on the spot and called it a fanfic. So, I damn that story to hell, plucked out an OC or two, revised them, put Dylan and Lloyd (you have to read the story to know who they are) in a blender together and fleshed the result out and BOOM, Youth Zone, Mark II was born. Prepare for one hell of a ride, that I try not to let fall into hell with Gone Again.
*here we go.
Lloyd 'Bunk' Cerla walked down the plaza, sighing as he did.
This had been another straight week of bunking, as usual. Bansha Beach was quiet, as usual at this time.
Bunk was a boy that, well, bunked. It was almost like he just didn't 'do' school. Somehow, he was still doing alright at school, with Cs and Bs, around average for his age of 13. He lived in a small town called Bansha Beach. He had medium-long brown hair with blue eyes and freckles. He was wearing a pale red unzipped hoodie with beige cargo trousers and red flip-flops. He was a sensitive chap, bless him, and didn't want to hurt anyone.
He shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and looked at the sky. It was a clear blue, a couple rouge clouds floating in the breeze. The sun was neatly tucked away behind the hill that lead up to… that school.
"Hey!" Someone yelled. It was a man, Bunk could tell, he looked, and there was a police officer there, pointing straight at him.
"Are you bunking?" They yelled. Maybe new to the force, Bunk thought.
"Well, it's kinda my nickname?" Bunk shrugged. That was a mistake. The police officer ran at him. Obviously not going to arrest him, but Bunk ran away anyways.
"Get back here-" The officer began.
Then it happened.
They just stopped. There was only Bunk's footsteps. He twisted around. There was no one in sight.
"H-Hello?" Bunk called. Nothing. "T-This isn't f-funny, officer… there was an anomaly like t-this o-o-one…"
Bunk realised they weren't kidding.
This was real.
This was happening.
The anomaly had begun.
Jake Benal sat in his school chair. Of course, his best friend Lloyd had bunked, like always. He, however wanted to do well in life, so he studied at school like a normal person.
"Now, divide 23 by-"
The teacher stopped mid-sentence, their chalk falling to the floor. Jake looked up. There was no teacher.
"Guys… where did Miss go?" One boy questioned.
"Is it the FAYZ again?" Another said.
Jake looked wide-eyed at the chalk. He had blonde, short-ish hair, with green eyes. He wore a purple polo shirt and black jogging bottoms, along with black sandles. People called him the 'Goth Kid' as a light joke, but he wasn't goth in the slightest. In fact, he was quite optimistic.
At this point in time, he wasn't looking so up.
Bunk ran back to school. This couldn't be happening. Could it? Those words circled around Bunk's mind as he sprinted down the street. He heard multiple car alarms going off, probably crashed.
And then there were the children to take care of.
And then there was the crime to take care of, that would eventually spiral out of control. He couldn't let that happen. But he liked blending in, but then he couldn't let the crime happen-
Bunk arrived at Bancha Local School, panting: he wasn't the most active of guys.
"Well, it's a first for me: coming back to school after bunking."
And with that, Bunk ran into the school.
It didn't take long to realise that getting around was going to be harder than expected. The hallway was flooded with rouge children. Generally, the 1st to 4th graders had no clue in hell what to do. The 5th and 6th thought they owned the school. The 7th, 8th, 9th and so on were worried, having heard about the FAYZ that happened.
Bunk was freaking out.
He couldn't find his friend, he was in the middle of a crowd, and the FAYZ just restarted in his little beach town.
"Bunk?!" He heard Jake call out, "Are you there?"
"Jake!" Bunk said, relived to learn at least his friend was ok, "You know what this means, right?" Bunk said, his eyes saddening.
"Yeah. Should we check just to see-" Jake begun, before he was rudely cut off by Bunk.
"Hell no. If we do, then we'll just see our empty houses." Bunk snapped, "Sorry, I'm just really…"
"Stressed?"
"Yeah."
Even though Bunk refused, here they were, at Jake's house.
"Mum? Dad? Anyone? Guys?"
Bunk was sat on the couch, knowing the result.
But why did this happen to Bansha Beach?
That was the only thing him and Jake hadn't predicted.
Why?
"Listen, kiddo," The ageing man said to his granddaughter, "This will be fun. Whether you want to believe that or not is up to you. What was also up to you was doing that stupid thing that got you here." The SUV they were in bounced a little as it hit a bump; Bansha Beach's roads weren't known for being as smooth as sand.
Grandpa Tyler looked at his 12 year old granddaughter. She'd tried tagging along with some punk as he robbed a convenience store, was what he was told. Of course, he knew she had just went with some boy to the store and he'd done everything, so that was why he'd said it'd be fun here in Bansha Ray.
"I didn't help him. I was just there. He wanted to go to the store, so I said 'sure, why the hell not' and then he goes and shoplifts vodka and now I'm stuck in this hell hole." Tasha said bitterly.
"Still, you were there and didn't object."
"…" Tasha couldn't think of a response to that.
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry. Hows'bout I buy you a sod-"
The SUV swerved*, narrowly missing a couple buildings. Tasha groped for the steering wheel, but her seatbelt blocked her from reaching it.
The trusty SUV slammed into a building head-first, knocking Tasha forward onto the dashboard and knocking her unconscious.
"Well, they're not here." Jake said, finally giving up after 15 minutes and flopping down onto another couch, "Has to be the FAYZ again."
"Youth Zone, Mark Two," Bunk wondered aloud.
"Huh?"
"That's what we can call it. Or YZMT for short." (That's pronounced all Y-Z-M-T for anyone who's interested)
"That sounds… surprisingly decent. Seeing as this is the second FAY—"
Jake was cut short by a loud explosion, a car alarm and a bunch of screaming. The two boys turned and looked at each other.
They ran for the door.
As they got there, they gasped at the scene.
It was around the Town Square, smack-dab in the middle of Bancha. The apartment block there was sporting a nice, black (or at least, once black) SUV in the front. People were screaming, and Bunk wondered why until he saw it.
"Someone's in there!" Bunk yelled, running up towards the SUV, "Anyone, run to the fire station and grab anything you deem useful – oxygen masks, towels, hoses ANYTHING!"
People looked at Bunk, not moving.
"Ok, my turn to be a leader," Jake joked, "OK people, this isn't YouTube or Twitter! This is REAL LIFE! Go go go!"
People ran towards the fire station, but Jake knew they'd never make it in time.
"You're not going IN there, are you?" Jake said, "Because if you are, you'll never survive – the engines blown up and set—"
"Yes, I can see it's on fire, and NO I'm not going in there…" Bunk said, an almost smile appearing on his face, "The fire's comin' out."
It was almost as if Bunk was possessed by something. He just lifted up his arm, and with it, the fire came. It was almost beautiful, seeing the fire there, harmlessly hovering up in the air. It gradually moved towards the fountain in the middle of the square, and doused itself off in there.
Bunk looked at what he just did, evident by the smoke rising up.
"What… The actual…" Bunk said, looking at his hands. They'd just controlled fire in a moment of pure instinct. It was… amazing.
"How. The. HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?" Jake yelled, smiling as he did. It's not everyday you see your friend lift literal fire with telekinesis and douse it in a fountain.
"Well, it's also kind of a problem. Look up." Bunk said. Jake did as instructed, and saw the same smoke that had lifted from the fire.
"Oh… you mean it won't evaporate?"
"No, man. Never. Unless, you know, this FAYZ lifts in the near future." Jake gulped, and Bunk saw his friend nervous, "BUT it would take, like, half the town burning for this to all fill with fumes in an hour. That smoke doesn't multiply, Jake: we still have time."
As Bunk said that, the group of people from before came up to the girl in the SUV with oxygen and wet towels. She coughed and spluttered, but it seemed like she would make it.
"Well, she'll live. I hope." Bunk said.
It was then the adrenaline of lifting pure fire with a movement of his hand wore off, and he realised what this meant.
He was going to have to lead the YZMT to survival.
"Oh god… what have I gotten myself into?."
So I hope that wasn't TOO cringey for anyone… No? Oh, good. Also, this IS a series, so expect our group of heroes (and one heroine) to see if they can see what's causing this anomaly in the first place, because it's certainly not a nuclear asteroid – Bansha has no Power Plant! Anyways, see ya later!
-Dylan
*Might as well address this – this is NOT going to just be a complete Lana knock-off. Look, she doesn't even fall off into a ravine. All jokes aside, this ISN'T a knock-off Lana, Tasha is actually the Astrid ROLE. Notice how I said ROLE, not character. She's not mega-smart, but she's not mega-dumb. She's visited town, yes. She's in a driving vehicle with a grandpa, yes. She's in a perilous situation that no-one could really escape from but she did, yes. But she's going to be more than just Lana and Astrid in a blender with a hint of Chemical OC.