Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-24694643-20140702225405

PROLOGUE

49 years ago in 2140, the population on Earth was 13 billion. This lead to some major problems, such as high levels of deprivation from too many people needing food, not enough water leading to thirst, not enough houses leading to poverty, and downright despair.

People, mainly adults with no children, were complaining to governments that they should globally enforce China's law of 1 child per family.

So they did.

This was called "The Singular Youth Massacre". Almost every 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc child was killed legally, estimated putting down the population to around 11.2 billion. Many children survived by either hiding...

...Or rebelling.

Many people from around the world started rioting from the government threatening to kill or killed their child. 4,000,000,000+ people were against every government / army / police force around the world. This was "World War 3".

Because of highly powerful weapons and large forces, the government clearly won.

But many countries lost.

Most countries had major loss of money, turning into less energy, less food, and even radiation leaks from nuclear plants.

The governments of countries that lost their own civil war were either in total anarchy and mayhem, or just a bare war land. For the countries that won, more of the population still kept on fighting until that country was put into chaos as well.

This whole war lasted around 7 years.

The rebels had beat Earth. It wasn't even called Earth anymore. Us people though it was too peaceful. We decided to give it the fitting name, "Anarchia".

Since it was 7 years of total chaos, many people died. Around 10.3 billion. That left about 900 million people on Anarchia. I was one of those 900 million.

40 years later, small gangs of people eventually grew into thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and even some, but few, grew into a couple million. And before you ask no, they were not the new government. In fact, the complete opposite. They invaded their own countries and killed a very large amount of people. Although a minor majority of these groups wanted this world to have the suitable title of "Earth", and not just corruption everywhere. Not surprisingly, their campaign failed.

About 1/2 of the population on Earth were in these around 7000 very large groups, 1/3 were in the rest of the smaller groups, some containing just 7 people and others up to 40000, and the rest were "The Roamers". And that is where I come in.

I was one of "The Roamers". Now don't get me wrong. We were not a group. Again, the complete opposite. Us Roamers were a large amount of people roaming Earth on our own. We didn't belong to a group, we believe that you couldn't trust anyone. And that is completely true. You didn't want to be hanging around then all of a sudden your so called "friend" stabs you in the back.

And now, let's begin my story.

-

I was born in Mexico. My parents were very loving, and needless to say I was well looked after. Sadly, my mother died when I was 3 so I am sorry for lack of information about her because, well, I don't really remember her. I do, however, remember my father very well.

He was a brilliant man who had a lot of thrilling tales of his own youth to tell me. He was also very creative, hell, he could make some kind of weapon from an aluminium can, a straight razor, and a shoe. Not saying he did, but he probably could. He would sometimes tell me stories about when he was fighting a large gang called The Grinders. Apparently they were one of the largest in Mexico but alas, he did not tell me how they got their name. I looked a fair bit like my father, dark messy hair, tall, and skinny.

He was brave, funny, and overall a great man. I knew he was brave because he sacrificed himself for me. When I was 15, our camp was raided by a group of people. I was put at gunpoint, and my dad twisted the wrist of my soon-to-be killer. One member of the gang saw him do this, and he shot him right in the side of the head. The man that did this wasn't exactly a man. He was a blonde, what-looked-to-be around 16 year old.

The last I saw of my father was his motionless, stone cold face turned towards me and the blood leaking out. I was mortified, and so was my father's murderer. He dropped the gun and ran off at the sight. So did I. Surprisingly they didn't shoot me. But at that point I couldn't be relieved that I was alive. Now that I think about it, the thought didn't even come to me that I could have died just then. The only thought that crossed my mind was his expressionless face. I cried until I could cry no more.

I was running for around 25 minutes until I found the ruins of some old camp where I could catch my breath and take in what happened. I sat there against some wood for what must of been 18 minutes, when I saw a figure come towards me.

The faint, silhouetted figure approach me, and I then fled from it because who knows, he could of been part of a group coming to kill me. I heard some faded words of,

"Hey wait! I'm not here to hurt you!" I didn't stop running.

"I'm here for help! I heard sobs from where you are so I was wondering if anyone was ok!"

This guy (his voice was clearly a boy) obviously didn't understand Anarchia. Nevertheless I stopped. I then began to question myself,

"What the hell am I doing?! I'm the one who doesn't understand Anarchia if I stop!"

His appearance was coming to shape now. He looked around my age at the time (15), also black hair, and he looked worried.

"I... was attacked... by this... thing..." he panted. He put his hands on his knees in exhaustion.

"Look, I really just need to be alone. I can't trust people I don't know, child or not."

I walked off, then I heard him say,

"Please... all I need is to know someone who is actually alive..." I turned back, and he was crying. I slowly walked back to him. Sympathy seemed to take control of my whole body.

"I don't even know why you were crying yet," he asked.

"Uhh, what did this thing look like?" I stuttered, trying to avert telling him what happened.

"You didn't answer my question, why were you crying?"

"... I just saw my dad being shot." I murmured, turning away from him.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. Now," I said, turning back to him, "what did this thing look like?"

"It was like 2 people merged together, and its skin was yellow and some chunks of it's body had fallen out. It tried to chase me, but I got away because it was quite slow and it was crawling anyway."

"Huh, that's weird." We didn't talk for a while.

"Can I join you?" He asked, breaking the silence.

"We hardly know each other. For all I know, you could be a spy for a gang." I said, thinking I was being smart.

"Please. I need someone. My parents are dea- uhh, I've been alone for a while." I noticed he tried to not remind me of my father.

I sighed. "...ok."He grinned widely, and I didn't know it then, but that was what would start my life.

We walked for a while, the hot sun beating down on us. We talked about things about ourselves, I told him a bit about my father and he told me a bit about the monster he saw.

Eventually, we came across a massive, gargantuan rip in the ground. We couldn't see the bottom of it, it just seemed to... never end. We found a ledge that we could sit on, and this would later become our camp. We would sit on it for a few hours every day. It was a great little spot, no one knew about it, and it was stable.

For the rest of each day we would look around the place, trying to scavenge for food and even weapons in case we got bit in the ass. It seems unrealistic, but in Anarchia everyone needed to know how to use a weapon.

About 2 weeks later after I met this guy, his name was Carl apparently, I learned that he was a bit stubborn, annoying at times and arrogant, but funny, generous and won't give up. I, on the other hand, tried to keep safe, logical, and honestly a bit more hard going, after my dad's death and all. But still, I couldn't imagine myself without him.

Also 2 weeks later, I finally understood what he meant by his pursuing monster. When we were scavenging an abandoned camp, we heard a groan which startled me. I jerked my head to the right and there was the most horrific sight I'd ever seen. It was a wide human with rotted yellow skin and two heads, one with a hanging jaw. Chunks of flesh were missing, and some of its insides were showing. Its legs appeared to be smashed and its arms were almost broken. It was crawling towards us, and I'm pretty sure it was hungry...

We stumbled away from it in fear, our eyes still glued to this beast.

"Hey!" A voice called. The beast looked to its left, then it's heads were completely blown off. We looked to our right, and there was a boy with a shotgun. He looked vaguely familiar...

He was the boy who killed my father! I backed up behind a wall. I could tell he was about to pull the trigger at my head.

"There's no need to hide. I'm sorry for what I did." He quietly said.

"Sorry? I owe you my life!" Carl said.

"I wasn't talking to #you#. I was talking to him. Look, I still can't get over that I shot your father. I cry every night knowing that I killed a man."

"Yeah well it's already been done! I can't forgive you. I don't know who you are and I don't care that you killed that thing. Just get away from me!"

"I'm sorry ok! I-"

"Guys, can we just calm down?!" Carl vaguely interrupted. We stood in silence for a few seconds.

"I should go. I'll try once more: I'm-"

"Just go away!" I shouted. He sighed, then left.

"Wait!" My father's murderer turned back, and Carl ran towards him. I never heard what they said, but I had an idea because the guy dropped his shotgun and walked back towards me. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there.

He held out his hand, signalling me to shake it. He forced a smile then said, "I'm Zack."

I sighed, "And I'm Samuel." I quickly shook his hand, then walked away. I heard in the background,

"He's just in a mood. He'll forgive you eventually."

"I hope." Zack mumbled.

I was walking around, and there was another horror awaiting me. It too was slightly yellow, except it was walking and the same structure as a human. It also had flesh ripped out, and blood stains were on its disgusting skin.

I found a nearby rock and threw it at its head. It only dazed it. I picked up another, this time threw it hard at his chest. I heard a crunch and it screamed in agony. I ran up to it and tried to kick it in the leg. It took my arm and its teeth were merely inches from my skin before I yelled,

"Argh, get off of me!" I tried to pull back my arm but its teeth were about to bite. I gave it a swift punch to the head.

Well that did nothing. So I had to try push its head away.

"Get... OFF!"

It eventually gave up grabbing on my arm, I grabbed its head from my other arm, and repeatedly punched it. My punches weren't that strong since it was my weaker hand, but a lot of them did the trick. It was dazed for a while, then I picked up a rock and bashed it against its skull. Many, many times. It soon fell to the ground and stopped moving.

I heavily breathed in and out, then ran back to the ledge. There I saw my friend and Zack talking to each other, and when they noticed I was back they stopped talking.

"Oh hey Samuel... Zack's uhm, joined us."

I was shocked at what he just said. My friend actually thought that I could live with this guy after what he did? And besides, wasn't he with that group who raided us?!

"Hey Carl. Me. You. Now." I pulled Carl by his shirt and said,

"You really expect me to just say 'Oh, you killed my only family member. Let's be friends!' And that's it?"

"Look, I don't know about you but he saved my life. This is a thank you."

"Whatever."

We went back over to Zack, and I remembered what I was going to tell them.

"Oh yeah guys, another monster just came to me when I was over there. I think I killed it... it wasn't moving."

"I think we should find out more about these things." Said Zack, looking very proud at his statement.

"Pssh, you don't say?"

I figured out that Zack wanted to take risks, always wanted things his way, and really wanted to protect Carl, for some reason.

The next day, we explored a bit further than our usual range in hopes of finding out more about those... monsters. We found a place we'd never been before, a house which looked still intact. We went to investigate further. It was still inhabited because we heard a fire crackling. And then, we saw a man. He was very old, probably around 70-80. As a Roamer, I knew what to do.

Run.

We ran away, and I heard a groany voice saying,

"Wait! Please don't leave me here!"

We turned around, and he looked longing to see us. This was almost the same scenario I had with Carl. Again, sympathy took over my whole body. We seemed to walk back towards him, and it was almost night so we needed somewhere to stay.

"Hello young boys! Do you want some carrot soup?"

We didn't even think that he could be tricking us. We just heard the word "soup" and we instantly said,

"Yes. Yes please."

He went back into his house, leaving us standing there. A couple of minutes later, he came back with bowls of what must of been soup. We sat around a small table, drinking our soup, and then I thought that he could know about those creatures.

"Do - do you know anything about the things?"

"What's that?"

"The... human things with yellow skin."

He frowned a bit then said,

"Ah yes. Terrifying misfortune to meet them. They are Shulks. They can come in all sorts of shapes from mutation. Some people got turned into horrible things from radiation leaks, creating Shulks. They want to eat normal people because they believe that they too will become human again. Humans are what they eat anyway. They won't eat anything else.

"So... are they alive? Can they take control of what they do?"

"Well yes they are alive, but not human. They are close to humans though, just very clumsy, yellow, and cannibalistic."

We saw a "Shulk" about to go at him.

"L - L - Look out!"

"Hm? Sorry, I'm a bit deaf!"

"WATCH OUT!"

It was too late. It put it's arms on the mans face and had its dinner. We heard the horrible sound of flesh being torn, and the old man screaming. We couldn't help him. We had to run.

We sprinted back to the ledge (now our camp) for what our life was worth. When we got there, our breath was pretty much non-existent. Our bodies collapsed to the ground and thankfully, they didn't follow us.

"Ok, we need to take turns of keeping watch in case they get us while we sleep." I pointed out.

"Good idea. Samuel, you go first. Then me, then Zack" Carl quickly decided.

When they were both asleep, I was struggling to stay awake. I had to keep a weary eye however, our lives depended on it. About 2 hours after me attempting to keep watch, I saw my worst fear.

A silhouette of a group. They weren't shulks because they were going at a reasonable pace. I felt fully awake at the moment. I had to keep down however in case they would see me. Thankfully, they didn't. They walked past us about 20 meters of a distance and that was really all I saw, so after a full 4 hours of me keeping watch, I woke up Carl.

"Your turn."

We woke up and it was midday. I didn't tell them about the group in case it would worry them, or Carl had an idea to chase them. They didn't tell me anything either, so it surely wasn't very eventful, or they just forgot to tell. But none of us forgot what happened to the man. It would scar us for life.

We were determined to find out about the Shulks. Well, at least Carl was.

"Ok guys. I don't know about you, but I want to find out more about these monsters. What were they called? Shulks?" He asked us the next day after that... #sight#.

"Hm, so you want us to go risk #killing# ourselves just to learn about these bloodthirsty cannibals? Sounds great!"

"Just listen. If we find out more about them, we could find out their weakness or even, I know this sounds a bit optimistic, stop them."

"Stop them?! Face it, we're children. God knows how much of them there are. And there's what, 3 of us? You've been crazy with your little schemes lately."

"Samuel you've been trying to put us down the whole bloody time we've been here. Can't you just get that I'm a positive person? I'm wanting to do good things while you're dragging us down to stay here."

"Yeah, well you need to get that we are children. Children! We are weak, flimsy people! We can't take on however so many Shulks there are! For once in your life could you just let your little dream go?"

"I know why you've been so horrible lately. It's your #daddy# isn't it?" I looked at him in disgust.

"Don't you dare say anything about my father."

"Samuel, I didn't mean to, I-"

"You know what? Go chase your little monsters and risk killing yourself. See if I care." Zack nervously said,

"Uhh, guys..."

"Zack for once in the time you've been here, please would you kindly shut the hell up." I bit back, keeping my eyes on Carl.

"No, there's a-"

"Zack..." I was losing my temper.

He pointed over behind us, then said,

"Sh-shuh-SHULK!" I quickly jerked my head behind me, then was taken aback from, well, you can guess.

"What do we have to kill it?! Tell me now!" I screamed. Zack hesitated in panic, then grabbed a nearby brick and bashed it on the head.

Sorry, I phrased that wrong. #Attempted to#.

The shulk grabbed his hand and took a bite out of Zack. He screamed in pain and we heard a bit of his skin being ripped off. I quickly pulled up a shovel and hit it on the head.

Now that I think about it, we scavenged a lot of junk.

It threw up on the floor, and Zack got away from the fight. I dug the shovel into it's neck, and it's head came right off like a knife through butter. I put down the bloody shovel and ran over to Zack.

"You see if we weren't arguing then he wouldn't be hurt! And this is why we need to know more about the Shulks to see if we can find a cure!" Carl said, pushing me back with every few words.

"...Fine. We'll learn about these things, putting our lives in crazy danger." I admitted, trying to make it sound as stupid as possible.

"Great! So... where do we start?" Carl happily asked.

"Exactly." I sarcastically replied.

"We'll show you the way, little kids," a voice called behind us.

Now reader, if you're not sure who these fellows were, they were nothing but The Grinders.

Who knows how they found us, why they found us, but they were certainly trouble.

We didn't say anything, just stood there, knowing they were going to kill us.

Instead, they grabbed our hands, tied them strongly ("Argh!" Zack screamed, "could you at least mind my arm?!") then lead us for hours over to some camp which we assumed was their one.

Why didn't we fight back? 3 children against 7 grown, merciless men. You get the idea. A sack was put over our head, we were lead into somewhere we didn't know, then freezing cold water was splashed all over us. We gasped for breath from the shock of the water, then the sack was taken back off and we were in a dark room with only dim, faded lights shining right in our eyes.

Interrogation time.

"Name."

We didn't respond. A man came out of the door, holding another bucket of cold water. He threw the bucket at us, no, he didn't just spill the contents over us, he threw it. I could see that Zack's face was covered in blood because corner of the bucket hit the side of his face. He was knocked out.

"Name," the voice called again.

"S-samuel C-C-Coleman," I chattered through my teeth. The others didn't respond.

"State your presence," the voice asked us rather sternly.

"We were just wanting to find out about the Shulks," I responded, disappointed with myself.

The voice looked up at us in shock, and I could see it was a woman.

"Well I must say that you boys are brave. Stupid, but brave."

She noted something down, then said,

"Enough has been said, you may leave."

Interrogations usually last a few hours, this one merely minutes.

A man came through the door, unknotted us, then left.

We rubbed our wrists, then we left through the door the man came through.

Wrong door.

I saw the woman talking to the man in low whispers.

"Send them west to the nuclear plant. Then they'll learn about the Shulks by becoming one of them" She chuckled, then gave a quick, stern look at us.

"Intruder!"

"No, we just-"

The man was coming at us quickly with a machete.

It was no use talking to them. She hit a button that set of an ear ringing alarm.

We got Zack up on our shoulders, and ran out the door of the Interrogation Room. Men were coming at us, so we braced our bodies and ran in to them. They fell over like a stack of cards in a gale wind.

We sprinted as fast as we could (which wasn't very fast as Zack was up on our shoulders) in corridors and rooms and eventually we found an exit. We threw Zack over with all our might then climbed over the high fence, then ran west. We knew what way west was because it was late in the evening, so we followed the sun.

"At least we know where to go," Zack said when he woke up and we got away from them. We slowed our pace. We needed the energy, especially Zack, for whatever the hell was waiting for us there at the power plant.

"This is a bad idea..." I murmured. Later, we found in the distance a little dot which must of been a power plant.

We planned out what we would do: see how many there are, if there's a lot, try to sneak in and find a way to kill them all. If there is few, we would try to just kill them with whatever we could find.

When we walked a bit closer, we found some old hazmat suits on the ground. They were torn, old, and a bit too big for us. It would do.

We approached the dot, and when it came into a bit clearer view, sure enough it was a power plant. But there were loads of Shulks. Hundreds upon hundreds. Possibly thousands. There were no chance of us getting in! Nevertheless, we approached a bit closer. As that unfortunate man said, they are clumsy, so they couldn't see us.

Until Zack had the GENIUS idea to approach one. He picked up a rock, and threw it at it. The power from the throw put too much pressure on his wounded arm (even though he threw it with his other arm) and he screamed in agony.

The rock hit the Shulk, but did nothing. The nearby ones just noticed us, and were coming after our gang. They all looked different, moved differently, and even moaned differently.

We didn't know what to do. They were around 30 meters away, but there were tons of them. They were really quite slow, so we decided to take a huge risk and run around them, still keeping a long distance.

There was a gap around 40 meters across between them, so we ran through that gap. When we got to the fence, they were at least 20 feet away from us. We had to get over the fence fast! We fumbled our fingers into the steel grating and climbed up as fast as we could. We didn't take into consideration that there were more on the other side of the fence. And so, we were stuck.

We sat on the edge of the fence, looking between the two sides for any chance of escape. There was none. And then, the saviour comes. The God had mercy on our soul.

A wandering group approached us, and said, "Zack! Is that you up there?"

"Yeah! Can you help us PLEASE?!"

And then I thought, what was the only group of adults that would know Zack and try to help him?

Right. His own. So that's what that group was in the middle of the night. I kept my mouth shut about who I was, in fact, I just didn't talk. I didn't need to.

The talking member of the group whistled to get their attention, and sure enough it worked. They started to follow him and he went further and further, until he was a fair distance away from them. We jumped down off the fence, and sneaked around the Shulks and around behind their group for protection. We took off our hazmat suits, then he looked around to us and said,

"Are you ok Zack?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for helping us, dad." Zack reassured his apparent father.

"What about you bo- wait. You" he said, pointing at me, "look rather familiar..."

His eyes widened, then hastily exclaimed,

"Zack. Get away from those boys. I'll finish them off." He pointed a revolver at me.

"Dad, I know you have a history with him, but he's my friend. If you're going to shot him..." he walked in front of me. "...you'll have to go through me."

I was shocked at how someone I hated stood up for me.

"Son, come on move out the way."

I saw a Shulk going to Zack's dad.

"Come on Zack. Get out the bloody way!"

He still stood there, blocking his dad's shot. He pointed behind his dad, and said,

"Dad! LOOK OUT!"

The Shulk struck. It bit right into his neck, then he dropped his gun and fell to the ground. It continued to feast on it's latest victim.

"DAAAAAAAAD!" Zack screamed.

"Come on! We need to get back to the ledge!"

We sprinted back as fast as our legs could carry us, and Zack's group was still chasing us. They couldn't shoot us since Zack's dad was the only one with a gun. They were throwing knifes and such at us however, but they only missed or cut us a little.

Until what seemed like forever, we finally got back to the ledge.

Dead end. And that's when they got Carl. They struck his leg which caused him to trip over, making us fall off the edge. We clung on for dear life. I didn't know what happened to Zack's group, but I heard screams and ripping sounds. They didn't kill any of us, but me and Zack were both slipping, and Carl needed two hands to save one of us. I knew he couldn't save us both.

And so, it was down to Carl.

"...This is it guys. The moment," he looked down at me, "Samuel, You've been my best friend forever and my first. We have had our fights, but god darn it I love you man," and then he glanced over at Zack,

"Zack, you've saved my ass countless times and been a great help, as well as a friend. Without you, neither of us would be alive."

He hesitated for a moment, and I was about to slip.

"Zack, I'll swing you up then you try and kill whatever's left up there."

Wait, what?

"Thank you Carl, thank you so much." Zack pleaded. I cried as I desperately tried to clutch the ledge as fast as I could. My hands were slipping, my muscles aching, my energy fading.

As my fingers were about to let go, I heard the last, sorrowful words of,

"I'm sorry, Samuel."  