Ok I got the first chapter done quicker than i expected...please R and R... there are spoilers from Hunger in hear so if you havn't read Hunger i dont suggest reading yet
Chapter 1
7 Days 17 Hours 12 minutes
Like every day Sam awoke early, it wasn't a blissful ray that woke him, but a scream or a cry, someone begging for his help, a hurt child in need of help, a fight between siblings. Waking was like a never ending pain, his own cold personal hell, all that awaited him in the light of day was the hunger and destruction. All he could hope for was something, something that could give him hope that the bleak existence for him would somehow seem a little brighter that day. He needed something that could give him hope for the future, or whatever existed. It seemed like the painful moments in the early hours of the morning were the ones that would hurt more than all the problems that he had to face, no matter what the anticipation of his damming position was the most horrible thing he had to endure. Still as he slid out of the bed he had hope that maybe tomorrow would be a little bit brighter. If there was one thing he had though it was hope, below the depression and the anxiety he had hope, and that was the one thing that he could count on. That was thing that everyone looked to him for, and no matter how much he wanted to break down and cry he would not, he could not.
This was what killed him, having to show hope but in the end not having any left for himself, just the idea of having to live through another day in his miserable existence. He sighed as he slipped on a pair of jeans, his hands were slow and lazy, they didn't want to have to suffer through more exhaustion. Painfully he forced them to do the task that was required, just like he would have to force himself and others to do as the day wore on. He felt like sobbing, breaking down, just falling to his knees in desperation, to beg for something to help. But he resisted, he slowly moved out of the bedroom that was his superficial residence and noted with a sense of irony that it was messy, here he was with all this responsibility and all he could think about was the what a mess his room was, he forced a grim smile as he walked quietly down the hallway. He passed Astrid's room and looked in, she was sleeping peacefully, a seemingly reluctant smile on her face, he felt a twinge in his heart. He loved Astrid, with all his heart, and now, her being the seemingly one happy thing in his life he longed for her.
To be able to kiss her and hold her and cry to her, but he could not, it was his problem and his problem alone, he would not destroy her to with the pain he felt inside. He suddenly felt the pull of lust for her inside of him, his mind suddenly turned against him, wanting him to pursue his desire but he stopped himself, there was another time and another place for the idea. He quietly shut the door to her room and moved down the hall, his bare feet feeling cold against the hard wood. In a few moments and with practiced grace he had slipped out of the house and out into the bleak yet beautiful morning. He had still not been able to overcome the awe of the world at its dawn, not the people or problems that inhabited it but the beauty of it, it was something that at least made him smile if not happy. He looked down at the grass, where the slim and glittering beads of dew begin to slowly fall to the ground in a sorrowful rush. Far away he heard the sad melodic singing of a bird, to him it sounded strangely sorrowful, in a way that the beauty could not compare to. Far off he heard a distant sound, the strange beating sounds of the waves, they were coming in an endless amounts and he craved being able to just leave and go and enjoy the cool blue freedom of the ocean.
He stood strangely still imagining what it would be like to go and enjoy himself to let go, just for once, he stopped himself once again, it was a fantasy, even though no one would care it would kill him inside. He would think he had let everyone down and that somehow going out there had made things all worse. As he moved forward he had a glazed look about him, as if he was absorbed in sometime of never ending dream, suddenly he was drawn back to the world around him when his toe caught on a rock and began to bleed, it brought back all the pain and all the suffering the FAYZ had brought to them. Every bad memory he had, caught in one moment of pure hell, the bliss of innocence shattered by cold reality. He held tears back from exploding outwards from him, he held all the pain inside and slowly begin his lonely walk to the mayors office.
An echoey scream pierced the dark, it was long and gravely but at the same time beautiful and smooth, it seemed to come from every corner of the endless darkness, bouncing off anything and everything, spreading the terrible, beautiful thing to the farthest corners of existence. The cry was death, eternal sorrow, destruction, and damnation. And yet is was beautiful, it was like the world taking its first breath in a dark new dawn. It was the essence of new beginnings and the realization of all that was gone. It was the bringer of endless fire that showered destruction down upon the world, but it was the bringer of water which gave hope and joy. To the watcher though it was pure misery, death and destruction filled the watchers mind. She doubled over in agony cringing and crying out begging for mercy. It wasn't her choice to have to endure the screams, she was a victim. She moaned on the ground being unable to stand, she grasped around her and attempted to raise her self from the seemingly nonexistent place where she lay. The scream seemed to drift away, she quickly tried to run, run anywhere, but than it hit her again sending her flying into the ground, smashing a wave of pressure through her. Blood shot out of her mouth as she cringed and felt her arm weaken from the impact. She tried to steady herself but could not, she crumpled into the darkness feeling the life drain out of her, her eyes flickered and attempted to perceive her surroundings, but her eyes just faded into nothing.
James shifted his body just the slightest bit in the tree, he needed more sun, he was cold. It had been a nightmare when the mob came, a sense of hopelessness had descended upon the town. In the fury and chaos of the night he had fled into the wilderness hoping to try and avoid the terror that had become the town. It was mind wrenching to imagine how much was being lost in the town, there sanity, there lives, there souls. He wanted to escape it, he didn't want to see his friends destroy themselves, but he knew it was inevitable, there was hunger and sin, and he knew that he would end up dying along with them if he stayed. In a way it was worse, knowing the end was near, knowing that even after you had suffered so much it would still come to an end, it was hell. He was 14, a little taller than most kids his age, he had nutty brown hair that strayed over his eyes, his eyes were an emerald green that most considered piercing. He had on a pair of dark slightly baggy jeans, there were ragged holes in the knees and they were stained with a light brown dirt color and the lime green of the grass. He had on an old white tee shirt on, it was slightly tight and it was getting annoying, over that he had a dark blue over shirt which looked like it had been through hell, it was dirty and cut up. And so he lay in the tree wondering what to do.
He considered his options, he could return to the town where the was a high chance mod violence had taken over and that the town was now ruled by fear and hatred. He could continue to live in the forrest, where, truth be told he was probably best off. Or three, the most unthinkable, go to Coates Academy and attempt to get protection there. No matter which way he decided it most likely would only lead to pain and suffering, his best bet was to stay in the wilderness until he could no longer find food and then to return to the town, there was no way he could bring himself to go to Coates. He had been out in the forrest for just over two weeks and in that time he had become adept at hunting, it would take a while for him to run out of food. Food, suddenly the memories of the nightmare he had suffered through came back to him. The days on end without food, and then the hunger that led to the mob, it all came down to them lacking in the essentials of living. He wasn't smart with resources, but it didn't a genius to figure out that they needed some type of renewable food source.
And than there were the mutants, the freaks as many people had called them, he didn't see what was the big deal about them, they were the only reason the small town even existed still. Without them all it would be was the brutal control of Caine and Drake, and that would be worse than anything else. He got that kids were scared of them, they could kill people with there thoughts, but the fact they attacked mutants in mobs and tried to execute them was just insane. Maybe sending the kid Hunter away or something, but an execution, all it did was to prove just how brutal the FAYZ had gotten. James thinking of the violence slowly brought his hand down to his pocket and pulled out a semi automatic pistol, he had been one of the kids trained to fight with guns. He had gotten very good but in the wilderness he still refused to use it to hunt, he didn't want to waste the bullets on animals, he had a feeling that there would be a time when he would need the gun. He popped the clip out and looked at the small sleek killing machines lodged inside, he prayed he would never have to use it against another person.
Lazily he slid from the tree, he had had enough of his rest and needed to get moving, he hadn't eaten in a while and hoped to catch a rabbit or deer. He pulled a long knife out of his back pocket, it was a throwing knife, even before the adults had disappeared he had been teaching himself how to use one, now all alone, it had come in handy catching food. He looked down at it and saw a long blood stain that ran from the tip to the base, sighing he spit on the blade and rubbed the blood off, letting it fall to the ground. He slipped the knife into his back pocket and walked into the woods hungry for food. He stalked quietly over the brush, his foot barely just scraping the dry parched wood, he was silent when he was hunting, it was hid life line. He was moving along slowly through the wood when he came upon a small gray hare, he flattened himself against a tree so as not to frighten it, slowly he pulled out his knife, his hand ran along the twisted curving bark as he steadied himself. The hare moved toward him unaware that its inevitable doom was at hand, it stopped and bent down to nibble on something on the ground when James slid out from behind the tree, his hand flicked and the blade gracefully flew through the air stabbing deep into hare, a splatter of blood stained the ground and the hare fell dead a knife in his neck. It was a terrible thing to kill, but these were desperate times James thought, I'm doing what I have to to survive.
