Author's Note: I do not own Gone. I do take excerpts from the actual book, like Caine's speaking roles in "Captain Caine," "Eavesdropping, Again," etc because without them, I'd be straying too far from the book. That and I just don't want to write something that that character wouldn't actually say/didn't actually say. I really do suggest that you read the Gone series, it has a really good plotline and typical whiney teenagers (ha ha). Hunger is my favorite. I can't wait until I get to write for that one.
Author's Note Volume Two: I've changed my character's name and made other improvements on my work. Be sure to tell me what you think and review!
Book One: Day One
Hello, my name is Avery Ingle. I am 14 and I live in Perdido Beach, California. I have been living without parents since I was 12. Today, however, all of the adults disappeared.
I know what you're thinking, where have your parents been? Here's my answer: I wish I knew. They're probably dead. They went on a sailing trip two years ago and never returned. Throughout the years, I've learned to fend for myself. All I had to do was list my grandparent's empty house as my address on school applications and never, ever, make friends.
I also know the typical question that follows. How have you been making money for food and clothes? Well, for the answer to that, let's just say Coates is easy to break in to. They blame the missing stuff on their "problem kids" and I get away scot free. All I really own is an empty closet in the in-town apartment building and a bicycle.
Now that that's cleared up, I bet you're wondering about the rest of the adults. Yeah, I am, too. All I know is everybody got out of the school real fast. Idiots, if you ask me. I think we should have stayed in one place instead of wandering about. I know what it's like to wander here. It can never be safe.
Part of me wanted to run to the office. Wanted to tell everybody that they needed to group together, that whatever was happening wasn't natural. But what would that do for me? Put me in the public eye? Send me straight into foster care? A short little girl with mousy brown hair? I would blend in like just another piece of an unsolved jigsaw puzzle. I would never get out.
I walked with everyone else. As I left I passed Astrid the Genius, School Bus Sam, and Sam's weird friend, Quinn. They all seemed pretty freaked out. They were headed towards the office. Maybe they had the same idea I had. Hopefully they did.
None of them noticed me. Astrid held her worried little head high. She was the type of smart kid adults would praise above all others. Basically, she could study school topics, but when it came to applications, she fell short. Sam looked exactly the opposite. For some reason he thought he blended in. Somebody like that could never blend in.
As I walked out of the school, I started to notice exactly what kind of havoc was about to take place. A group of kindergarteners were all wandering in opposite directions. Each time they seemed to know where they were going, they turned around and headed the other way. Two fourth-graders were fighting over some trading card, each one shouting that they'd tattle on the other. Some older boys had treed a squirrel with meter sticks. However, what shouted out 'failure' the most was the crying.
Nobody in their right mind would cry in such a public place like that. They should be lucky that they hadn't popped into thin air like the teachers. Hell, even I was happy about that fact.
Then I saw Sam waltz on out of the school and head into town. I almost wanted to scream an array of curse words in his direction. How could he be so stupid? We need to stick together! People look up to him, if he goes, they will. The only way you'd be able to control a group that big fanned out that far would be with some sort of weapon. Some sort of weapon that doesn't exist.
I waited for everyone to leave, excluding the lost kindergarteners. It almost made me cry the amount of them that were left here. Did anyone care that the little girl that lives down the road was sitting down on the lawn outside the school eating rocks? The sheer amount was too much for one person. I left for town. Maybe somebody else had done the same.
I needed to get my stuff out of the apartments.
My apartment building was right next to the day care. Even smaller children sat unguarded in that godforsaken place. Come to think of it, I wonder how many stay-at-home parents had disappeared to leave their children on the floor in the kitchen. Alone in their bedroom. I almost released a sob when I pictured a "bath-time" mid disappearance.
I decided at that moment that had to save at least one kid, maybe two.
The closet had been the sleeping quarters of a live-in nurse who had long quit (maybe because her room was so small). Somebody had been using it to hide stuff they couldn't fit in their apartment. My best guess is that it was the old man who was a level five hoarder/dementia patient, considering nobody ever came to get their stuff. Whoever they were, they got to cram more stuff into their actual space and I got to live in the middle of Ariel's hidden cave. Too bad I didn't get the statue of the heroic prince. I only got a TV-box full of mugs from Philadelphia.
I grabbed my bag and packed all I had, two cans of tuna, four of corn, two of green beans, four shirts, two pairs of torn jeans, a small worn blanket, and a half-empty bag of chips. I pushed my bicycle out the door, knocking over a two foot lava lamp as I made my way out the door.
That is, until I heard the crying.
It was a little girl, alone in her apartment. The door was open, and I figured nobody was going to be upset if I helped a little girl not die. She was sitting in the corner of her main room hugging her knees. What caught my attention, though, was the sixty-four pack of crayons on fire in the middle of the room.
Using a nearby blanket I quickly suffocated the flames. The little girl wailed as I did.
"Stranger danger!" The little girl screamed, pointing at me.
"Don't worry," I stuttered, not knowing what to say, half worried somebody would hear her, "I'm just the fire department."
"No! You're that girl mommy tells me is no good!" The blow almost hurt me. On the contrary, when I actually thought about it, I'd probably tell my kids to stay away from a girl who was living illegally in my home, too.
"Well, I was sent here because the fire department was on a snack break." I made up the most kid friendly excuse I could that didn't use the term 'bunnies' in it. The girl seemed to buy it.
"Oh, well I tried to call them, but nobody was home. I guess that makes sense." She moved over to the melted wax and sat down with a bright red crayon and began to draw on the wooden floor.
"May I ask what your name is?" I still wanted to find somebody to save. I think this little girl deserved it.
"Oh, my name is Ashton."
"Would you like to come with me, Ashton?" I didn't know how else to ask, so I was straightforward about it.
"No, my brother will be home soon. He was at school. Next year I get to go to school."
For some reason I felt relief. Somebody who actually had somebody else to look after them. I turned off the stove and made sure there weren't any matches in her reach. I also told her not to let anybody else she didn't know in. I didn't want some kid to rob her just because there were no adults.
It was an hour after the fire I found out her brother was sixteen.
It tore me up. For once, I walked up to somebody. For once, I made the first step in making my world a better place.
"What happened," I screamed at some boy, Joel, who was standing next to Edilio.
"Oh, there was a fire." He mumbled, obviously thrown off by being yelled at by me, such a quiet, innocent girl from school.
"No duh! I heard a little girl died? Yeah, I fire-proofed her apartment a few minutes ago. No way could anything normal have started that fire."
"Get used to abnormalities, my friend. We're living in Hell."