Chapter 1 – Fateful Morning

The alarm clock erupted into its morning routine, and Zach bolted upright. While the alarm clock seemed to be excited about its wonderful new day, Zach had a slightly less enthusiastic view. "Argh…" Muttered Zach as he wiped sleep from his eyes and stared around his room. It was still dark out, so his room was almost completely enshrouded in darkness. He looked over to the alarm clock. 5:42. Wonderful… Zach navigated his way from his bed to his door to find his light switch, as he had done countless times. As he turned on the lights he was assaulted by the sight of his room. Clothes and random things everywhere, his bed seemed to be surrounded by carnage of the teenage variety. The dresser against the far wall seemed useless since most of his clothing was just on the floor anyways. Oh well. Zach slowly made his way out his door into the hallway and took a right into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. His brown hair had grown down, just barely above his eyes, unkempt from sleep but generally not cared for too much. His face was for the most part without acne except for a small bump on the bridge of his nose. He was wearing a blank gray shirt and blue pajama pants, and by the looks of it the shirt may have needed a wash. He was pretty average height, and a bit thin, but not scrawny. Zach finished up in the bathroom to his sister rapping on the door. "Zach get out, I need to get in!" she whined through the small door. She always seemed to complain as he was leaving. He walked out the door past his freshmen sister, as she dashed into the bathroom.

Past the bathroom the ceiling was a lot lower, and the walls met at the top forming the roof, so he had to watch his head as he turned at the end of the hall around to catch the stairs that always seemed to have something on there to trip him up. This time it was a box of things for his sister's room and he nearly fell down the stairs as he discovered they were there, and managed to catch himself on the next step. "Come on, Mom! Why can't you or Lily just put your stuff upstairs? I'm tired of tripping on it every morning." Zach sighed as he walked into the kitchen, to pour a quick bowl of cereal. He looked at the clock downstairs, it read 5:56. He still had a bit of time, since he showered last night in order to sleep that extra 10 minutes. "Your bus is going to be at the stop soon, you should leave soon. I don't want to have to drive you again." Said his mom. She said this every morning but still managed to be right. Zach ate his cereal and hurried up stairs and got dressed quickly, coming down just a couple minutes later and putting on his shoes and messenger bag and heading out the door. "Later Mom, I'm off now." He said as he left, he could barely hear her reply as he closed the door.

The house he was living in was built in the 50's, and was not that big, but not too small. He and his sister and mother managed to live in it comfortably enough. As he walked down the road and took the turn to his stop, he could see the Bust just pulling up about 1 block ahead of him. "Damn…" He muttered to himself as he took off, running for the bus. He sprinted up to it but as he got there it was already leaving, and as the students on the bus were too tired to care, nobody realized he was left there. "This is not good, Mom probably left for work already, now I'm screwed…" He thought to himself. But Zach knew today wasn't a very big day, no tests or projects due, just a math assignment he hadn't fully completed anyways. He decided to "take the day off". As if he had other options… He walked back to his house, sort of relieved that he wasn't going to school today. With plans to go up to his room and surf the web, he walked up to the front door. Locked. He opened up his messenger bag looking for the key, but to no avail. He left it inside. He was locked out. "Damn it!" He cried out loud, and proceeded to start the walk to his dad's house about 2 ½ miles away in the same town. His neighborhood at his Mom's house was not much of a neighborhood. More like a street that went out to the main road at the end, where his bus stopped. As he made it to the main road, there were very few cars, as it was pretty early in the morning and he was able to just walk across the street instead of going to the crosswalk. The sign about the Goldtree Halloween Party was already up, halfway through September. He passed it as he went down main street pass the Japanese restaurant he loved, and could smell food cooking. They had to get up early too, and food they were preparing smelled delicious, and it made his stomach growl. A bowl of cereal probably wasn't enough for a great breakfast, but he could get more at his dad's house. Speaking of, he should call his dad. As he dialed his father's number, took a turn down a trail that led to a river. The shortcut to his Dad's part of town. The valley had a lot of places like these in small towns. Trails that led to different parts of town, that were shorter than the roads even though they weren't intended to be used as such, Zach liked to use them anyways. "Hey buddy!" His dad said as he picked up, excited to have his son calling him. "Hey Dad, I managed to miss the bus and I'm locked out of Mom's place. Think I can crash at yours and do my work there for today?"

"Sure, I get what it's like at your age having to get up at the crack of dawn. I remember once when I was a kid, I missed the bus and managed to hang out with a few friends who brought a bottle of whiskey, and… well… Never mind don't do that haha!" Rambled his Dad, as he was prone to doing so often.

"Thanks Dad, I'll be there in a bit, just going to walk down there, if you leave before I get there just leave a key under the mat for me." Said Zach softly as it was still morning. He walked down the trail, surrounded by a lot of trees that reminded him of this game on his computer where you walked through a forest being stalked by a faceless creature. It was pretty scary, and had Zach a bit on edge as he thought about it.

"Alright, no problem son. Just make sure your mother doesn't find out, she'll have my head if she knows I let you skip school like this. But boys will be boys! I love you son." Said his father happily over the phone

"Love you too Dad, I'll be there in a bit. Thanks a ton." They said their goodbyes and he hung up the phone. He was just able to see the main road behind him, in the darkness. But he had traveled this trail a lot in daylight, so it can't be that different at night. As it got closer to the river it eventually turns to, he saw the turn off to where the trail from his father's neighborhood was. As he approached the turn off, he heard a noise. A shuffling in the bushes just ahead on the left side of the trail. Zach got down on his knees and looked out from behind the trail sign, curious as to what it was but a bit frightened along with all the darkness. As he watched the brush down the trail, he saw a cloaked figure emerge onto the trail, check both ways to make sure he wasn't followed, and then did something peculiar. He was sure the person hadn't seen him, but as the man lifted his head up slightly, Zach could have sworn he heard breathing, and then what sounded like a small series of clicks. The figure suddenly turned toward the river from the trail and quickly ran down the trail.

Now Zach was really curious. He was a bit scared, following a cloaked figure down a trail in the dark, but he was more curious than anything. As nothing big ever happened in this tiny town, he wanted to know just what was going on here. As he took off after the figure, he could barely keep up with him. He was fast, but didn't seem to notice or care that Zach was there. He slowed down as they got up to the bridge that went across the river, where he normally didn't go unless it was summer time. He saw the cloaked figure go down under the bridge, and disappear from sight. Zach approached the bridge, and heard voices underneath. The first voice was raspy, and sounded a bit strained. "Hey, sorry I'm late. I managed to get a few though, I'm sure the Lord will be pleased."

Zach wondered what the hell they were talking about, but kept listening. The second voice sounded more normal, but feminine. "Hey, you cannot just be late like this. It is a treat you get to see this world anyways, even I have not seen it. But think what if you were seen? What then? You could risk everything for a couple Overland fruits!" Her voice slowly rose throughout the scolding.

Overland? Lord? Just what was this all about? Was there some cult going on? This sounded incredibly strange. "Oh please, Miss Queeny, as if you haven't done something stupid or dangerous before" the raspy voice said with a laugh at the end.

"But my adventures do not merit the risk of everything we know." She sighed "Oh well, you would not listen to me even if I wanted you to, would you now Quicksilver? Were you followed? Did anyone see you?" she said with cold preciseness at the end, as she got to business.

"I don't think so-" The voice dropped to a whisper and stopped. Zach realized what he thought was a man was checking, he hid on the bridge, behind the side quickly. But he had gone up the other side, not where he had originally gone down and turned to Zach. "You! What are you doing here!" He rasped out and ran up to Zach as he was getting up and grabbed him and shoved him up against the side of the bridge's railing. Zach struggled and was panicking now. As the figure was about to keep talking, he heard the other one coming up. "Quicksilver, let him go. Do not injure our guest." She said in a soft tone. Pushed Quicksilver aside, and turned to face Zach, brushing the dirt off his shoulder. She had a cloak on too, so it was hard to make out her features. "Now, what exactly are you doing spying on us?" She said softly, but cold as ice.

"I wasn't meaning to spy… I just… I saw a man running down the trail this early as I was off to my Dad's place, and I didn't know what it was about! Why are you even here? What's all this talk about an Overland and apples?" Zach cried out, scared but able to keep talking.

The girl took raised her hands to the long black cloak's hood and pulled it off. Zach saw before him a very pale, very blonde almost silver haired girl. She was just a bit shorter than him, and looked at him with intense eyes he could just recognize as violet in the ever so growing amount of light. "You are coming with us. Do not put up a fight, or I will be just as happy to knock you out and drag you with us." She said with half a smile on her face, and a cocky look in her eyes.

The one known as Quicksilver was about to protest when the girl stopped him and walked to him and whispered something to him Zach couldn't catch all of. Something about a prophecy? These people sounded crazy, and Zach was freaking out. They didn't appear hostile though, so he didn't put up a fight as they led him under the bridge to what was going to, unbeknownst to him, the beginning to an adventure he didn't ask for but always wanted.

I hope you liked it! Please drop me a review of what you thought! I'm not going off the placement of the Underland being below New York, and I decided to move it to below a small town in the country. I am very excited about this story, and will most likely post another chapter later today or tomorrow. Reviews would be very nice, I love to know how i'm doing! And if you have constructive criticism by all means PLEASE put it in! I need all the help I can get! xD