Hey guys, Shabromac here. I've been getting some good feedback from my pretty short first chapter. Gaps in the story will be explained later, if you were confused on things such as, "Why doesn't Crow talk?" That will be told later. I hope you guys like this as much as the first chapter! Review, favorite, whatever you want to do. I would especially like you to review though, tell me what you like, if you're enjoying it, etc. Also, I might add one of your ideas to the story. MIGHT. Don't get your hopes up, but if you want to take your chances, put your idea in the reviews. Sorry about the insanely long intro, chapter three should be up soon! :D
Taking everything that the girl had just told me, I said, "Where are we then?" "Our bunker," she replied. "My name's Sarah, by the way. What's yours?" "Jack." "Well Jack, you look well enough to move now, which is good. Follow me, I'll give you the grand tour.
"Fritz, I'd like you to meet Jack." "Hey Jack!" he said. Sarah told me that he was the group blacksmith. He seemed
to be about a year older then I was (I'm 15). It seems like he was too young to be creating armor and weapons, but I once again ignored it. "So you're the newbie," he said. "I can have a suit of armor ready for you in an hour." "Armor?" "Of course! What do you think will protect you?" "Ok then," I said, hoping that it was a good answer. Rose took me to meet the farmers/miners. "Jack, meet Taegan and Crow. These two are the backbone of our group." Taegan was a tall boy about my age. He had brownish hair that was well-kept, in contrast to my messy sandy blonde. Crow was a girl probably a year younger than me. She seemed small for her age, and very quiet. Her eyes were a certain shade of grey. Her hair was like a continuing flow of redness, totally out of place. "We got a newbie?" Taegan asked in a deep voice. "Yep," Sarah said. He looked at me thoughtfully. "Do you know how to use a weapon?" he asked me. "No." He threw his hands up in the air. "We're freaking screwed!" "What do you mean?" I asked. Sarah looked at me in a sad and mournful way, as if I was already dead. "Do you remember that fight in the forest?" she asked. "Yeah." "Some of those people were us, trying to fight the raiders. They keep stealing from us." I thought for a minute. "Did someone hit me in the head?!" Crow looked embarrassed. "Crow did," Taegan said. "She thought that you were one of them." "Oh. So who are the raiders?" Just then a deafening boom exploded throughout the bunker. "CRAP!" Taegan yelled. They all grabbed weapons from a rack near where we were standing. Sarah grabbed a bow, Taegan a large axe, and Crow a dagger. I examined the rack. The only weapon left was a grayish looking sword on the ground. It looked old and damaged, and I assumed it belonged to Fritz. "Great..." I muttered under my breath. I picked it up and rushed into the main room to meet them.
It was chaos. A group of boys, each around seventeen or eighteen, were fighting the group. They had white suits and carried a motley assortment of bows, swords, and what I thought were war-hammers. Taegan was easily fending 2 of them off, one from a few minutes before on the ground, lifeless. Crow was an expert with her dagger. She hopped off of a furnace and flew through the air just like an airplane, severely damaging anyone in her path. Sarah was rapidly shooting arrows, each one hitting its target. One of the armor-clad soldiers flew across the room, hitting the wall with an arrow in his chest. I rolled into the blacksmith area, needing cover. Fritz was on the ground, a huge gash in his chest. I screamed. I barely could get a foot away before something hit me in the back. A boy of about 18 had hit me in the back with the hilt of his sword. I rolled to the side, sending his next attack to the floor. I got off of the ground and sliced his chest with my sword. He fell down, unmoving. I looked around. The floor was littered with bodies, my friends looting every one of them. "Here, take this armor," Sarah said. She handed me a helmet and a chestplate. "It looks like Fritz won't be making us any." She stared sadly at him. The room was silent for a minute. "So..." Taegan said, wanting to change the topic. "We can't stay here anymore can we?" "No, we can't," Sarah said. "This food we got from these raiders won't last long, and neither will the weapons and armor. Three other raiders took everything else from the chest. They escaped, and we can't hunt them down because we don't know where their hideout is." I saw Crow write down something on a piece of paper. She handed it to me to read. "We should go to... Cliffdale?" "NO!" Taegan and Sarah yelled in unison. "Um... why?" "Sarah looked exasperated. "It's a city not far from here. It has no laws, so it's under a constant state of anarchy." I was shocked. "No LAWS?! Then who keeps the city running?" Taegan looked at me for a minute, then said, "The Empire. Or so they say. Who REALLY runs it is the Bandits." "Bandits?" I said. "Oh yeah, flocks of them. They're just like the raiders who looted us." "Ok," I replied, taking it all in. "So who's the Empire then? Crow looked at me sadly, as if she was at my funeral. She took the paper from my hand and wrote, "You don't want to know."