The first chapter is over...time for the second! Sorry for a month-long wait, but at least it's here now! ENJOY!
CHAPTER TWO - The Stadium: Part 2
It was already morning.
Lincoln was knocked out on his new bed.
The sun rose up, shining a bright glow on a gray morning.
The welkin turned from a dark yellow to a bright blue.
The scorching sun prevented any type of flurry to occur. Now that the world has been completely scorched, the winter season is unlikely to happen.
Lincoln's eyes slowly opened.
He rubbed his eyes softly and yawned.
Lincoln looked around and saw the other kids sleeping.
Benny had a blanket over his eyes.
Nikki was snoring and her arms was hanging off the bed.
Amaya slept quietly.
Cyrus also slept quietly.
Stella cuddled with her blanket.
The only three that were awake were Casey, Tobias and Sawyer.
Casey and Tobias were chatting quietly near the entrance of the room.
Sawyer was laying down on his bed with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
Lincoln sat up and began to slowly walk towards Casey and Tobias.
Lincoln looked at Sawyer as he passed him. Sawyer didn't make eye contact with Lincoln.
Lincoln continued to walk to the two in front of him.
Casey and Tobias looked over at Lincoln.
"Morning." Tobias said.
"Morning." Lincoln replied.
Lincoln stood there, not knowing what to do.
"So...do we get to leave the room? What do we do?" Lincoln asked.
"We wait until Maurice calls us down for breakfast. Maurice is our handler. Some of the other kids stay at the other hotel. Jay is their handler. So we all go downstairs, blah blah blah, and we get to the cafeteria, and we eat, et cetera." Casey explained.
Lincoln nodded.
"How long until that happens?" Lincoln asked.
"Actually...pretty soon." Tobias replied.
Casey and Tobias looked at each other and snickered.
"Watch this." Tobias said towards Lincoln.
Tobias walked over towards the middle of the room and smiled.
Tobias opened his mouth and widened his eyes.
"WAKE UP!" Tobias screamed.
Benny yelped and fell off his bed.
Nikki also yelped.
Amaya sat up quietly with a tired expression.
Stella dropped her blanket.
Sawyer stayed quiet.
Cyrus held his hearing aid tightly in pain.
"God dammit, Tobias!" Cyrus said.
Tobias laughed.
Casey snickered.
Lincoln was surprised.
"Dude! I was having the best dream of my life!" Cyrus said.
Tobias shrugged and walked towards Lincoln.
"Expect that every morning from now on." Tobias said while giggling.
Suddenly, the room to the door opened.
In the entrance way was Maurice.
Everyone looked over.
Maurice had an annoyed expression on his face.
"Tobias...what did I tell you about screaming at the crack of dawn." Maurice asked.
Tobias sighed.
"Well...not to." Tobias answered.
Maurice sighed.
"Then why did you?" Maurice asked.
Tobias shrugged.
Maurice groaned.
"Alright, come on, it's time to eat." Maurice said as he began to walk down the hall.
Lincoln and the others began to follow Maurice.
Lincoln looked ahead and saw his others friends exiting their rooms at the same time.
Lincoln sprinted over towards them.
Lincoln also noticed other kids he didn't recognize exiting rooms C1 and C2.
"Chop! Chop! Let's go." Maurice said as he began to walk downstairs.
Luke looked at Lincoln as he approached them.
"What's up, little Lincoln lad!" Luke said.
Lincoln waved at Luke.
"Nick snores so fucking loud." Luke said out of nowhere.
Nick glared at Luke.
Luke smirked.
"What? I can't tell the truth?" Luke said while smirking.
Nick sighed.
The kids began to walk downstairs and towards the stadium.
All of the kids arrived at the cafeteria.
It was a decently large room with multiple tables.
By now, everyone was sitting down and chatting.
Lincoln held his tray of rations and began to walk towards his group and sit down.
Lincoln sat down next to Luke and Benny. Luke was on Lincoln's left while Benny was on his right.
Lincoln faced Casey. Luan was across from Benny while Luke was across from Cyrus.
Amaya and Sawyer sat at a different table.
Lynn sat next to Luke and Nikki sat next to Cyrus.
Sage sat next to Lynn.
Aazay sat next to Benny.
Across from Aazay was Nick.
Matias sat at the very end of the table next to Sage.
Across from Matias was Tobias.
Stella and the rest of the group sat down on a table next to them.
"There was this big loud explosion, and these guys came out of nowhere and started shooting up the place." Casey said.
"It was intense." Cyrus added.
The group listened.
"They pulled us out of the maze and brought us here." Casey explained.
"What about the rest? The other people left behind in the maze? What happened to them?" Luke asked.
Casey shrugged.
"I don't know. I guess, Wicked still has them." Casey answered.
Aazay and Luke looked at each other.
Aazay faced Casey and Cyrus.
"How long have you guys been here?" Aazay asked.
"About a month." Casey said. "We we're all in the same maze. Except Sawyer over there. I think he came here alone..." Casey said while looking at Sawyer.
Sawyer had his hood on and stared at the table silently.
Aazay nodded.
"What do you guys do here? Just generally. Do you just eat and sleep? Are these guys trustworthy?" Aazay asked.
"I'd say they are, I mean...they haven't done anything wrong at all...sometimes that's the case, but they do take us out to the field and have us practice using guns, socialize, play games..." Casey explained.
"Yeah, I remember when Chad and I learned how to shoot guns." Cyrus added.
Lynn looked.
"Who the hell's Chad?" Lynn asked.
"One of our friends. Adson called him down to the city." Casey answered.
"The what?" Sage asked.
"Apparently it's this large, populated, full-going city somewhere North. It's their main base or something." Casey said.
"Yeah, every day they call down a certain group of kids. Send them there for good. Like some sort of new life." Tobias said.
The group listened.
"We haven't seen him in a few weeks, but when it's our turn, we'll be heading over." Casey said.
Aazay got suspicious.
"Are they going to do that today?" Aazay asked.
"Probably." Cyrus said.
Cyrus looked around.
"I noticed you guys got a lot of people. How'd you all get out? I mean, when they found us, the majority of us were already dead from the slugs." Cyrus asked.
"Slugs? Is that what you call them?" Luke asked.
Cyrus nodded.
"What did you call them?" Cyrus asked.
"Grievers." Luke replied.
"Interesting name." Tobias said.
"We had to fight our way out. We lost a few on the way to the lab. One of our old friends came back stung and killed one of us. He was a nice kid. Then these people came out of nowhere and escorted us to a bus." Benny explained.
Some of the group looked down in sadness as Benny brought up Clyde.
"Dang. You guys probably had it tougher." Cyrus said.
"Joe had it the toughest. His maze was nothing but girls." Tobias said while chuckling.
Luke looked at Tobias and raised his eyebrow.
"Really?" Luke asked toneless.
"Some guys have all the luck...or the opposite. Depends what type of girls you're stuck with." Casey said.
Jay entered the cafeteria with a binder.
"Good morning gentleman! Ladies. You all know how this works, if you hear your name get called, please rise in an orderly fashion and join my colleagues behind me where you'll get escorted to the eastern wing and to our bus, to which you'll be transported to our check-in station, and then to our city. Your new lives are about to begin." Jay announced.
The room was filled with distant claps which quickly quieted down.
The new group looked on.
Jay opened up his binder and looked at it before looking at everyone else.
The entire cafeteria was silent.
The cafeteria had around 60-70 kids.
Aazay looked around and noticed the blank faces of the guards.
Although the place was pretty populated, it still felt empty to Aazay.
The walls were plain for a stadium, the cafeteria was rather dull and the kids were the most colorful things in the room.
Aazay thought that kids being taken to somewhere that was never seen by anyone else was rather odd to him.
"From group C..." Jay said.
"Wait, that's us right?" Luke said.
"Miles." Jay said.
A kid with black hair and a blue hoodie got up and high-five'd his friend before walking over towards the guards.
"Brianna." Jay said.
A hispanic girl got up.
"Daniel." Jay continued. "Owen. Regina."
The three got up and went towards the guards.
"Gooby..." Jay said.
The room chuckled.
Gooby got up and smiled at everyone.
"Alright, alright, settle down." Jay said.
"Ashton, and Halina." Jay said.
"Looks like all the kids from C1 and C2 are out." Cyrus snickered.
Jay continued.
Jay looked at his binder.
"Tobias." Jay said.
Everyone looked at the white haired kid.
"Lucky." Nikki said to herself.
Tobias got up quickly and waved at his friends in a teasing way.
"I guess this is it. See you around." Tobias said quickly as he jogged up to the guards.
Tobias didn't even give a second thought. He was way too excited to go to the city.
"Ronnie Anne." Jay said.
The group looked over at the girl, who perked up.
Lincoln's eyes widened.
Ronnie Anne looked around her and saw everyone at her table looking at her.
Ronnie Anne got up slowly and walked to the guards.
Lincoln looked on.
"That's one of your friends right?" Cyrus said.
Jay faced the guard behind him.
"Montoya, please escort these kids to the bus." Jay said.
The guard nodded and began to escort the kids towards a door.
Lincoln looked at Ronnie Anne.
Tobias stuck his tongue out at Cyrus.
Ronnie Anne was the last one to leave the cafeteria.
Lincoln and Ronnie made eye contact right before the door shut.
Jay faced back towards the cafeteria kids.
"Now...fortunately today, one of our other units dropped by and was kind enough to leave a spare bus for you kids." Jay explained.
The kids in the cafeteria talked.
Jay cleared his throat.
"Continuing from Group C..." Jay announced.
The kids in Group C were absolutely silent.
"Lincoln." Jay said.
Everyone looked at Lincoln.
Luke facepalmed, for a reason no one would know,
Even Sawyer looked at Lincoln.
"At least he'll be with Ronnie." Lori thought in her head.
Lincoln got up and walked over towards Jay.
Jay looked at Lincoln.
"You're gonna wait right there alright?" Jay said while pointing to the wall behind him.
Lincoln walked towards the wall and turned around.
Jay read another name out loud from the binder.
"Sage." Jay said.
Luke's eyes widened.
Sage looked at Luke and approached him.
"I'll be fine, Luke. Besides, it won't be the last time I'll see that cute worried expression on your face." Sage teased.
Some of the cafeteria kids laughed.
Sage walked away from Luke and joined Lincoln at the line.
Even Nick and Mollie laughed.
Jay continued.
"Kaitlin." Jay said.
Kaitlin got up without any hesitation and joined Sage and Lincoln. What else was she supposed to do?
"Matias." Jay said.
Luke and Nick looked at Matias.
Matias got up and silently walked over towards the group of called kids.
"Sam." Jay said.
Luna looked at Sam.
Sam nodded towards Luna in a reassuring way and got up.
Sam walked over towards the group of called kids.
"Lynn." Jay said.
"Ah shit." Lynn said to herself.
Lynn walked over towards the group.
"Nick." Jay said.
Luke started getting reasonably upset that Jay was calling all his friends down, leaving him behind.
Nick got up and walked over.
"And finally..." Jay said. "Stella."
Casey, Cyrus, Nikki and Amaya looked at Stella.
Sawyer kept his head down.
Stella got up and slowly walked over towards the group.
Jay closed the binder.
Some of the kids in the room sighed in disappointment.
"Now, now, don't be discouraged, if I could take more, I would, the busses can only fit so many people, there's always tomorrow, your time will come." Jay said.
Aazay shook his head.
The fact they took all of his friends that were the most immune gave him a weird feeling.
"I'm not liking this." Aazay said to himself.
Casey and Cyrus faced back towards the group.
"Lucky bastards." Cyrus said.
Sawyer looked around and got up.
Sawyer began to exit the cafeteria.
Aazay noticed this and got curious.
The group of called kids were escorted outside towards the stadium. However, the group was not with Ronnie and Tobias's group.
The sun shined down causing a bright glare on the kids eyes.
Sand hills and small debris scattered the landscape.
The group was in the parking lot.
A giant chain wall surrounded the gigantic parking lot. The entrance to the parking lot was blocked off and used as a watch area.
The bus that they were heading towards was unlike the other rickety bus they were in before. This bus was a coach.
The coach had a blue and green stripe pattern on its exterior.
The company logo of the coach was blocked off due to some sort of iron scrap covering it, acting as a shield or armor for the bus.
The guard leading the group opened the doors to the coach.
The guard entered the driver seat of the coach and looked at the kids.
With his head, the guard told them to get on.
Lincoln got on the coach first.
Inside were a bunch of gray seats, all empty. There were windows for perfect view for the scorch.
Lincoln looked around and decided to sit at the very back of the bus.
The others got on the bus as well.
Lincoln sat down at the last seat.
Each column only had two seats.
Lincoln sat down at the seat closest to the window.
Sage and Lynn sat down at the two seats across from Lincoln's.
Nick and Matias sat in the seat in front of Lincoln's.
Kaitlin and Sam sat in the seats in front of Sage and Lynn's.
Stella was the last to enter. Seeing that Lincoln was by himself, Stella walked over towards Lincoln's seat.
Stella sat down next to Lincoln.
Three more guards entered the bus and sat at the front row seats.
The guard driving the bus closed the doors to the coach and turned on the engine.
The coach started to move forward.
Lincoln faced Stella.
"Hi...I don't think we talked that much before." Lincoln said, trying to make friends with her.
Stella nodded and faced Lincoln.
"Yeah...we didn't." Stella said. "I'm just so nervous about going to the city...I mean...I don't really have the comfort of the people I know well...I'm basically just going here by myself..."
Lincoln took note.
"Well...I know you don't have your old friends, but we're as nervous as you are...we're in this together, no need to worry." Lincoln said, trying to cheer her up.
Stella smirked a bit.
"Thanks." Stella said.
The coach reached the gates of the parking lot.
The gates opened, letting the coach through, starting the journey to this supposed "City".
The kids still at the stadium were sent back to their rooms.
Luke was playing with a ball of tinfoil he made at breakfast.
Luke kept throwing it in the air and catching it while laying in bed.
The only people in C3 now was Luke, Aazay, Lori and Luna. Everyone else was called down by Jay.
Aazay sat on the edge of his bed.
Lori was standing near her bed, thinking to herself.
Luna was tapping the metal bars of her bed, making a rhythm.
Aazay sighed.
Luna stopped tapping.
"Not gonna lie dudes...I feel like i'm in a prison right now." Luna said out loud.
Luke stopped playing with his tinfoil ball.
"Same. It isn't the same without Sage...or Matias...or Nick. Or basically anyone that ain't here anymore." Luke added.
Luna nodded.
"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" Luke asked.
"Like the dude himself said...when our time comes." Luna responded.
Aazay shook his head.
"I don't know...ever since we got here...I've been getting a weird feeling in my stomach...like some sort of...ick feeling that I can't get to go away. This place gives me bad vibes." Aazay said.
Luke looked at him.
"I'm starting to see what you were talking about last night." Luke said.
The room stood quiet. The teens had no idea what would happen next.
The coach was still driving.
Night had already approached.
The sky was dark and the soldiers were looking out the windows for...something.
Nick had fell asleep on Matias, causing him to have an annoyed face and cross his arms.
Sage was humming to herself.
Lynn was sitting quietly.
Lincoln had surprisingly stayed awake.
Stella was also awake.
Sam fell asleep.
Kaitlin was still awake.
Lincoln stared outside.
The coach began to take a left behind a hill.
What was revealed in the distance didn't look like a city at all.
The coach arrived at some sort of factory.
Lynn immediately took notice of this.
Lynn hopped over Sage and began to walk down the bus and towards a guard.
Lynn tapped the guards shoulder.
The guard looked at her.
"Hey, is that where we're going?" Lynn said while pointing towards the structure in the distance.
The soldier replied.
"Yeah." The soldier said.
Sam had woken up.
The kids in the back looked down the bus, with the exception of Matias, due to Nick still laying on his shoulder.
"I thought we were heading towards a city. If that's what you call a city..." Lynn said.
The soldier sighed.
The soldier wore a camouflage suit with a black body armor vest over him. He had a gun strapped onto him and the soldier looked to be in his mid-30's. The soldier also had ginger hair.
"We were...until The Owl told us there was a blockade in the path to the city, so we're stopping here instead because it may take more than a few hours." The soldier said.
Lynn was confused.
"Who the hell's 'The Owl'?" Lynn asked.
"You met him. Jay Adson." The soldier replied.
"Why would he call himself an owl?" Lynn asked.
The guard shrugged, but it looked more like an ignoring shrug less than a "I don't know" shrug.
Lynn grew more suspicious as the coach pulled up towards the factory.
The factory was well-defended, well-guarded and was gigantic for it's size.
The driver stopped the coach and parked it outside the entrance.
The guards got up.
"Come on." A guard said.
The kids in the bus started to head towards the exit of the coach.
Matias elbowed Nick's shoulder.
Nick woke up.
"Ow." Nick said quietly.
The group began to exit the bus.
The door to the factory was this giant, iron gate which had yellow zig zags on it and a blue logo that said "STATION 3".
The gate to the entrance of the factory began to rise up.
What was inside was a bunch of working soldiers and civilians.
There were forklifts and supplies scattered around inside.
The factory was brightly lit and was 7 stories tall.
The kids began to look around inside.
The soldier that was driving the bus took the lead.
"Follow me." The guard said.
The group looked over towards the guard, who began walking down the factory.
The group soon followed.
Back at the stadium, where the sky was pitch black...
Maurice was sitting at the front desk chair, reading a book.
"Haha, that bitch...don't fall for his dirty looks." Maurice said to himself while reading the book.
The book was titled "The Girl In The Hotel Next To Me". What a lame name...
"Oooh...Sarah's getting a bit kinky there..." Maurice said to himself.
Suddenly, a telephone rang. How the hell did these people even manage to get a phone working after all of this?
Maurice put the book down and picked up the phone.
"Maurice of Hotel One." Maurice said while holding the phone to his ear.
Maurice's eyes widened.
"Understood sir! I'm on my way!" Maurice said in a panicked state.
Maurice set down the phone.
Maurice started to breathe slowly.
"It's okay Maurice, just do what mama told you...stay calm..." Maurice said to himself.
Maurice began to sprint outside of the hotel.
An alarm started sounding in the distance.
Whatever was happening, it sure couldn't have been good...