EDIT:

I revised this story again. Life got in the way so I'm finally back at it again. Made a few edits this chapter to make things more aligned later on. I'll review chapter 2 and 3 as well. Please look for the EDIT on the top when I finally get a new update in.

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It's been quite some time since I've attempted to write a story. I have an idea but I must get a backstory before entering the movie storyline. Please give me tons of feedback. Some know which direction to go with this. I hope you enjoy it!

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Stepping outside the Shatterdome always brought chills to Amelia. Wrapping the stolen Gypsy Danger jacket tighter, she finally felt her time outside the base was enough when the cold Alaskan air whipped around her. She went inside to the hangers, where she knew he would be.

As she walked through the winding halls, Amelia contemplated her life and how she arrived in Alaska.

Her thoughts faded to her parents. She had dreams of her mother. She bravely raised Amelia with the aid of Amelia's grandmother. Her father abandoned her before she was born. She grew up in a small town near New York City. Amelia thinks back to her time with her grandmother in the bustling cities. She would tell Amelia stories of the great Pacific Northwest and the peace she found there in the forest.

While Amelia was in high school, her mother and grandmother visited family and friends in San Francisco. It was then that her world fell apart. Her school was locked down when the first Kaiju attacked the West Coast. All the kids left individually as their parents picked them up, Amelia being the last. Her guidance counselor, Ms. Perry, took her home for the night until child services arrived. Amelia was sixteen and thrown into a foster system that bounced her around New York City. No one wanted a teenage girl. Since she finally turned 18 and was forced to fend for herself, she had enough money saved to buy herself a one-way ticket anywhere in the US.

After everything that happened, Amelia felt the Pacific Northwest was too close to where she lost the last of her family. Going through the few belongings of her mother and grandmother, she found an old postcard.

The postcard was simple — a mountain background with a small city covering the base. Amelia flipped the card over and noticed the small metal and white envelope. She removed the paper clip and held the envelope. She was surprised it was attached, so she dropped the postcard to break the seal. When Amelia opened it, it was a picture of her grandmother sitting at a table. In the photo, somebody curled her grandmother's hair, and she was looking off into the distance. Green trees sat muted behind her, where her white and gold shirt made the picture pop. She looked so at peace. She returned the picture to the envelope and packed+ it into her bag. Amelia picked up the fallen postcard and flipped it over, where three words gave her all the direction she needed.

"WELCOME TO ANCHORAGE"

Amelia immediately bought the first one-way ticket to Alaska. She was ready to get away from her past. But Amelia needed to figure out where or what to do. All she knew was she wanted was the furthest she could go on her little budget. It was the best plan she had, and she ran with it.

When Amelia arrived at Anchorage International Airport, she realized her first order of business was to find somewhere to sleep for a few nights. In the morning, the first task would be to find work. She found a small inn down the road and got a room for a few days. Using the last of her resources for the temporary housing, she knew getting a job would be significantly high on her priority list. After finally getting settled into her room and taking a long hot shower, Amelia could relax and finally get some shut-eye.

When Amelia woke the next day, she grabbed a newspaper and a tourist map from the main office. She went back to her room and looked through some of the classifieds. Not finding much, Amelia looked at the time and realized it was eleven in the morning. The lunch shift would start, so she immediately got dressed in the one pair of black pants she owned, a couple of scuffed-up warm boots, and a long-sleeved beige sweater that saw better days. Amelia got her coat on and put job-hunting into overdrive. Heading towards the small town, she looked for restaurants or bars that may need help serving. She didn't have much experience, so she needed something entry-level. Servers usually walked home with tips at the night's end, so it couldn't be so bad.

She walked into the first restaurant at the beginning of the street. She approached the hostess and noticed the petite blonde looking quite bored.

"Hi, my name is Amelia, and I was hoping to speak with a manager, Donna?" Amelia noted from the woman's name tag.

The petite blonde named Donna looked at Amelia up and down. Amelia being very tall with an athletic build, felt scrutinized by the eyes of this tiny woman.

"What for?" Donna seemed quite annoyed that Amelia interrupted her doodling.

Amelia responded, "I recently moved here and was looking for work. I was hoping there was availability in this restaurant." Donna laughed at this, and Amelia perked an eyebrow.

"I don't see how that's funny. Look, is there a manager around or not? I just want an opportunity for some work."

Donna's look sharpened and zeroed in on Amelia's eyes.

"I'm the manager, and this is my restaurant with my family. I'm not interested in hiring some stranger from the lower States who thinks she might be entitled to a job because she's not from around here. We have a sense of class here, and that's not something you have," Donna glanced down at the beat-up boots Amelia wore on her feet and holey sweater. "Go find the dive bars down the road. They might have lower standards." Donna retreated into the restaurant, leaving Amelia floored at the hostility.

Amelia walked out and took a deep breath feeling defeated. 'This is unreal. The whole town can't be like this. Gotta keep going to the other shops; gotta catch a break somewhere.'

Amelia continued down the shopping strip and stopped in clothing stores, more restaurants, and even offered to clean bathrooms. Although she didn't have the same hostility going through the other locations as the first one, she sensed the close-knit relationships of the town. She was getting antsy as the evening approached, and the weather dropped a few extra degrees.

Amelia gasped when she finally looked up behind the small buildings on the strip when she made her way to the end of the road with only a few bars left. She never saw one in person, only saw the large metal buildings on television or in the paper. The sheer size of it was overwhelming standing before it. She got so wrapped up in the architectural beauty of the Shatterdome she jumped when the bar door to her right swung open and hit the wall. Watching a frustrated man walk away from the building made her hesitant about going in. Amelia was surprised when she saw the sign, 'The Billy Goat Bar.' Such an odd name for a bar in Alaska. Looking back at the massive building, she went to the dingy bar with the missing front lights hoping to find some work for a little income.

Sketchy was an understatement. Walking into a cloud of smoke with minimal lighting, Amelia passed the dusty, unused pool table and made her way to the bar. Glancing around, she saw one patron slumped on the bartop, either sleeping or passed out, and an older man with salt and pepper hair and a thick burly mustache reading the newspaper in a corner booth smoking a cigar. A slight glow from the overhead lighting gave the older man with the cigar a mobster look while he sat quietly.

Amelia took a deep breath and walked to the corner booth.

"Excuse me, sir,"

He quickly interrupted without looking up from his paper, "I don't need teenagers in this bar, find the door and leave."

An overly frustrated Amelia had enough of everyone's attitude and the constant shutting down of opportunities.

"If you bothered looking up from ya paper, ya would see I'm no teenager. I'm lookin' for a job, and I'd like to speak to someone in charge. So if ya can point me to the right person instead of wasting my time just like everyone else on this strip did to me all day, I would greatly appreciate it."

Amelia felt she had enough. She didn't even reserve her New York Accent. She was exhausted and felt pissed that all her time was wasted by people who didn't want to give her any.

The burly older man puffed the cigar in his hands. It filled the air with smoke. He put his paper down and came out of the booth. For a moment, Amelia was afraid when the man reached his full height. He had to be 6'5" at least. Amelia, a tall girl coming almost 6' herself with some weight to her, usually isn't intimidated, but this man made her feel small. She felt like the ant and him the boot.

Amelia took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and lifted her chin.

The man looked down at her and chuckled.

"I like ya, girl. Ya got spunk. What's ya name? Where ya from?"

Amelia sighed, not liking where this was going. "Amelia, New York, sir,"

Nodding with a small smile, he walked past Amelia and behind the bar. He waved his hand and ushered her to sit while he went into the room behind the bar. Amelia took in her surroundings. The walls were dark wood. The shelves above the bar were dusty, and the tv looked like it was from the 1980s. Feels like a time capsule in here. Amelia was tossed out of her thoughts when she heard some shuffling of boxes and then a sudden shutting of a door. A feeling of dread ran through Amelia, and immediately all the horror movies she had ever watched flashed through her mind. Shit, this is it, I'm gonna die here, and no one will know.

While looking at the exits for a quick getaway, Amelia saw the burly man come through the door with a few sodas, water, and a coffee.

"You're not 21. Not sure what you might like, but here are some options."

Amelia felt safe with the water, so she grabbed the bottle and put it in front of her. The burly man watched her beverage choice and took the coffee she didn't pick up. He came around the bar and sat next to her. He looked at her up and down. Amelia felt like a piece of meat. As she pushed back the barstool, giving up, he spoke.

"If you're under 18, I can't hire ya. Legality and all that." She paused and looked up at him.

"I'm 18, sir," she quickly responded, unsure if it was a good or bad thing.

"You look like you can handle yourself. But would you be able to handle a few old drunks and some youngin's that come in from the 'dome?"

"Absolutely," Amelia immediately thinks back to all the scuffles she got into when bouncing from home to home. Sometimes she even had to separate the smaller kids from senseless fighting.

"Gotta have thick skin if you're gonna work here. I don't need any princesses comin' in here cryin' and runnin' at the first few words some drunk asshole says."

"I understand completely." Amelia nodded quickly.

"I got one more rule. No boyfriends in my bar, got it? I don't need any unnecessary drama."

"Totally single, sir; nothing to worry about here," Amelia said urgently.

"Ahh, stop with the 'sir' stuff. Call me Tom" Amelia hesitated at being so casual with a boss.

"You got it, Mr. Tom." Tom rolled his eyes but didn't argue. "You start tomorrow. And if anyone asks, you're 21, got it? S'posed to be of age to be servin' the hard stuff. But frankly, I don't care all that much. I haven't had anyone wanna work here in years!" Tom got up and went into the back room.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Tom! You won't be disappointed!"

When Amelia ran out of the bar, she flew out the door only to hit something hard and land on something incredibly soft... preferably someone.

"Ooof," "Shit!"

Amelia looked up with red curls falling into her eyesight, only to look into eyes that matched the ocean. Coming to her senses, she jumped up to help the blue-eyed man to his feet. Amelia dusted him off out of embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't see where I was going! Are you okay?!" Please be okay because I can't afford it if you're injured. Her eyes caught him, and she suddenly stopped the dusting.

"Yeah, I'm fine" The man with blue eyes couldn't stop staring at the redhead with grey eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Well, I had a little cushion to soften the blow," Amelia tried to make light of the situation but felt like he was scrutinizing her with his gaze. Great, he's probably still trying to breathe right. You probably knocked with wind out of him, Lia.

"Raleigh! What are you doing? We only have time for one beer before training!" They both turned towards another blonde man who addressed the man before her. Amelia noted they looked alike, possibly brothers.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before." Amelia's attention returned to the man.

"You haven't." Came Amelia's lame reply.

"Raleigh! Let's go!" The man called Raleigh laughs.

"In case you haven't figured out, I'm Raleigh." He stuck out his hand for her to shake.

Amelia glances at his hand but shakes it hesitantly. "Amelia."

"Well, Amelia, I hope to see you around." With a wink, Raleigh turned towards the bar she just left.

Amelia was trying to get over the initial shock of the interaction. She glanced up at the 'Billy Goat' Sign and took a deep breath.

Here's to new beginnings. She thought.