Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-36393004-20181027034711

Author Note: This is a follow up to After the Fall. I haven't completed it yet, but I'm well into the introduction of the world Tony has found himself in. Just looking for feedback on the direction I'm heading. I will update when I am further into the story.

The heavy steps of combat boots echoed down a long corridor as Tony was escorted by armed guard into a large concrete structure buried in the side of a mountain. His weapons had been confiscated upon his entrance into Canada. Tony had approached the border station, which appeared to be abandoned upon first inspection. He had only made it a few yards within the gate before a dozen rifles were trained on him. The guards had taken all of his possessions and forced him into a Jeep. Tony had b een blindfolded for what seemed like an hour before they allowed him to see the large entrance of the bunker. Tony could only wonder what their intentions were with him and found himself wishing Collin was still alive to protect him.

The procession stopped at a large iron door. One of the men pounded his fist on the entrance, causing it to reverberate against the concrete walls around them. Within seconds a metallic clamor was heard from the other side and the door opened. Another camouflaged man stood on the other side and directed Tony to enter. The boy was pointed to a small chair sat behind a large metal desk. Tony sat, his body almost shaking at the thought of what would come next. The door shut and was latched before the man sat across from Tony and opened a small folder that rested upon the desk. The man’s pen clicked and the folder was tossed open to what appeared to be some sort of form.

“Name?” the man said.

Tony jumped slightly, not expecting the voice, “Um...T-Tony.”

“Full name please,” the voice changing to annoyance.

“Anthony James Williams,” Tony replied.

“Age?” he asked.

“Eleven, twelve in November,” the boy said as he looked around the room, “What is this place?”

“Your questions will be answered later, but first we need to get some from you,” the man said as he finally looked up to Tony, “So, where are you from?”

Tony sighed and for a moment he was not sure if he should be so honest, “G-Georgia.”

With every answer the man scribbled on the form and soon it was filled with most of Tony’s personal information. The boy sat nervously tapping his foot on the floor below him, the steady buzz of the fluorescent lights above him the only sound other than the questions. He found himself thinking of Collin again, wondering what his friend would have been doing in this situation. The boy imagined Collin fighting back against the guards at the border and finding a way to take them all down. He had built his recently departed friend into something superhuman and the thought made him smile. The sound of the folder clapping closed broke him from his daydream.

“Ok, that’s enough of the boring stuff, it’s time to get to the reason you are here,” the man said with a smile playing on his lips, “This is Forward Base Charlie and I am Bandit.”

Tony’s eyebrows contorted at the name, “Bandit?”

“Yep, when you start here you get to change your name if you want. Most people have name’s like that around here. When we get you setup you can choose one too, but I would think long and hard about it because once you pick one that’s your name from here on out,” Bandit’s pen tapped on the folder as he spoke.

“So, what is all this?” Tony’s hands waved around him at the room.

“Well, when the world went to shit a lot of people didn’t know what to do. Government went out the window and most of the Army regulars weren’t sure exactly what to do without the proper guidance. Some of them even lost their shit,” Bandit said with a slight laugh in his tone,” So...it kind of left a hole that had to be filled. That’s where we came in.”

“And who exactly are you?” Tony quizzed.

“Well, our higher ups are former military from various places. They came together to try and protect who was left and have been recruiting every able bodied person since. That’s how I started, I mean I was a snot nosed kid from Oregon before I came here, never used a gun in my life,” Bandit laughed.

“But...who are you?” Tony’s voice became annoyed at having to repeat himself.

“Oh sorry,” Bandit paused, “Man I have a tendency to ramble, I mean, they say I have a big mouth. I guess that’s why they have me doing these little interviews for newbies.”

Tony simply shook his head before Bandit realized he still had not given the boy an answer, “Ok ok, we call ourselves the Apex Predators.”

“That sounds...really lame,” Tony scoffed.

Bandit shook his head, “Listen I didn’t make up the name, some old fart did. Something about there are two kinds of people in this world the predator and the prey. You know wolf and sheep shit. They wanted to make sure we were the top of the top, you know?”

Tony’s eyes rolled a bit in his head, “Most of the guy’s I have seen so far don’t look much older than me. And you’re what? Fifteen?”

The look on Bandit’s face showed how insulted he seemed to be, “Sixteen actually.”

Bandit finally escorted Tony from the tiny room and further down the hallway. They came to a large bay window with a desk just behind it. A young Hispanic girl sat at the desk with aisles of shelving behind her. Bandit passed the folder through a slot to the left of the window and the girl retrieved it. As she skimmed Tony’s form she exchanged small talk with Bandit. Tony stood quietly, listening to the exchange and learned that the girl’s name was PackRat. It seemed fitting since she seemed to be the guardian of all of the supplies for the base. Tony’s eyes scanned the shelves and saw stacks of clothing, food rations, weapons, ammunition, and various personal hygiene items.

The girl finally turned her attention to Tony and began asking for his shirt, pants, and shoe sizes. Just as Bandit had taken his notes, so did PackRat. Every answer was scribbled into Tony’s file and once she was done her little body disappeared among the stacks. When she returned a pile of clothing was dropped into the slot by the window. Bandit pointed to it and Tony only assumed he was to gather the things. The boy opened the metal slot and removed three tan t-shirts shirts, three digital camouflage button down shirts and matching pants. Once he closed the slot, PackRat dropped a pair of black combat boots into it and shoved it back through. Bandit opened the door, grabbed the boots and plopped them on top of Tony’s pile. Tony looked down into the boots and noticed they were filled with rolled up balls that must have been his socks and underwear.

“Ok, that’s all you get for now,” Bandit said, “That is, until we learn a little more about how capable you are.”

Tony was then escorted further into the compound, past a large set of double doors that approached a cross walk within the hall. They took a left and approached another door. Through a small window at the top of it Tony could tell that this was some sort of barracks. The other side held lines of bunk beds and young men scattered among them. Some lay on their racks reading, some played cards over their footlockers, some slept, and some of them were cleaning their rifles. The longer he looked the more he realized that all of them seemed to be as young as he was.

Bandit pulled open the door with one hand and waved Tony in with the other, “After you.”

The boy entered slowly, his stack of clothes almost covering his face. His eyes shifted from the faces before him, the faces that now turned to see him enter. It seemed like everything came to a stop to witness the newcomer and this made Tony uncomfortable. His feet shuffled under him as Bandit entered just behind. The group sat in silence for a moment before Bandit introduced Tony to them and instructed the room to show the “newbie” around before turning on his heels and exiting the room.

No one moved at first, especially Tony. The world he had come to know recently had taught him to be cautious and at the moment he felt like he was standing in front of t-rex, trying to be as still as possible so that he was not attacked. Tony wanted to be invisible, he wanted to crawl into a hole away from the constant stare of every boy in the room. That’s when a hand clapped down on his shoulder, causing him to jump and turn toward it. A dark-haired Caucasian boy laughed for a moment before removing his hand.

“Sorry about that,” he spoke through a slight laugh, “I forgot how jumpy I was when I first got here.”

“Haha, y-yeah,” Tony faked a laugh.

The dark-haired boy shoved an open hand forward, “Name’s Duke.”

“Hey,” Tony reached out and shook the inviting hand, “Duke, huh?”

Duke gave a weak chuckle, rubbing at his close shaved hair, “Yeah, I didn’t pick it some of the guy’s did. They said it’s cuz I sound like one of them Duke boys, you know from that old show?”

Tony shook his head, “Never seen it.”

“Ah, guess you won’t get the reference then, anyway let me show you around,” Duke said as he started down the path between the rows of beds.

As Duke passed by groups of people he named off people. There was Skinny, who was, of course, a very skinny Middle-Eastern boy. Then there was Tex, who was not from Texas but somehow was roped with the name. He met a HotRod, Flex, Rabbit, Joker, Fox, Bug, Wolf, and a Mack which was short for Mack Truck because of his size. All of these names had corresponding meanings and applied to the personality that held them. Tony began to understand the reason for the name choosing tradition. They all seemed visibly happy to be someone different from who they had once been. It was like starting over and prying themselves up from whatever hell they had come from. That was when Tony began thinking of what he would want his new name to be. That thought rushed through him as the tour continued and he missed the next group of names. He did not snap out of it until they approached the bathroom.

“Now this room has your showers and shitters,” Duke said, “We have two bathroom rules. One, if it’s yellow you let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down. We have to conserve water.”

Tony laughed at the thought as Duke continued, “Two, we get showers on Monday and Thursday, that’s it. Again, to conserve water.”

“I’m use to going without showers, so that’s no big deal,” Tony replied.

“Yeah, we all were too when we got here,” Duke scratched at his head again as he looked down, “So, how long were you out there anyway?”

Tony’s eyes trailed off, thinking of the last year of his life and Collin, “I was alone for the first month or so after The Fall, but I had company over the last year...he just, didn’t make it here.”

Duke shook his head as he looked up, “Sorry.”

“It’s ok, we almost made it, some asshole tried to jack us just outside the border and my friend stopped him, but got shot in the process,” Tony kicked at the concrete as he spoke.

“Man, that really sucks,” Duke replied, “But, you made it here and we take care of each other.”

Tony felt Duke’s hand slap him on the back and something about it made him feel better. He even gave a little laugh at the thought of feeling safe again. He had wondered if he would be after losing Collin, but the people here did not seem too bad. Duke showed him to an empty bed that he could use. Tony placed his clothing in the footlocker at the end of it and unrolled the folded sheets and pillow case. He prepped his bed just before Bandit returned to the door. He called out to the room, “Lights out, we got an early day tomorrow ladies,” and the flickering fluorescent lights above them went dark.

The room was woken by a blaring trumpet. A very large man stood at the doorway while a young man blared the instrument. As the horn fell silent the man instructed them to get on their gear and meet in the training area. Tony rushed to pull on his clothing as some of the other boys disappeared out the doors. He did not want to be left behind because he had no idea where the training area was. While he struggled to tie his boots Duke stepped over to him and helped him finish. Duke stayed until Tony was finished and told him that he would not let him get lost on his first day. Tony thanked him and something about the way Duke cared reminded him of Collin, which made him sad. He tried to hide the feeling, and forced a smile as they exited the barracks.

When they exited a doorway at the rear of the hall Tony was greeted by a large clearing that was surrounded by a concrete wall on all sides. His eyes scanned the enclosure in the dim daybreak, guessing that the wall had to be at least twenty feet high. The area was as large as a football field and was littered with ropes, ladders, ramps, tires, and metal bars. Tony knew what this was, it was an obstacle course. The boys lined up in rows of six and Tony fell in line next to Duke. His new friend pointed to the man that had woken them all up, as if to tell him to pay attention.

“For those of you who do not already know me, I am Sergeant Buzzkill,” the man’s voice sounded like thunder, “But you, will call me Sir, understood?”

The group screamed in unison, “YES SIR!!!”

Tony jumped at the sound, as the sergeant spoke again, “I’m sorry I thought I asked you a question.”

The boys screamed again and this time Tony joined them, “YES SIR!!!”

The sergeant paced back and forth across the front line but his eyes caught sight of Tony who stood in the back. The man’s broad shoulders pushed passed the boys between them and came to stand over Tony. His eyes were intense, the kind of stare that you only developed from combat. He stood silent for a moment, weighing in his thoughts of the new recruit. Tony’s mind swam with worry, unsure of what might happen next. Tony’s eyes shifted slightly over to Duke and at that second the sergeant spoke directly to him.

“Don’t look at him, look at me,” Buzzkills voice boomed again and Tony could feel his spit splash his face.

Tony stiffened, his eyes wide, “Yes Sir!’

“What’s your name kid?” the man barked.

“T-T-,” Tony stammered.

“Spit it out punk,” the sergeant yelled.

“Tony!” the boy forced it out.

The sergeant huffed, a smile curling on his lips, “No, what’s your real name boy?”

Tony had not decided on a name yet, so he scrambled for an answer. He was quiet for several moments, running through the options he had been contemplating. His eyes shifted slightly and he noticed the people in front of him were watching intently for his answer. The sergeant seemed to lean in closer, his smile widening at the idea of causing Tony distress. Suddenly the boy did not want to be here, he wanted to be back in the cabin with Collin. He wanted to go back and start over. Fear crept up in him, a fear he thought he had escaped. All of this swarmed his mind as the sergeant waited for an answer.

“Well?” the man bellowed.

Tony’s mouth opened without thinking, “Stone!”

The sergeant leaned back and let out a hearty laugh, “Stone? More like Pebble!”

All of the boys joined in the laughter, all of them except Duke but they were silenced quickly by a raised hand from the sergeant before he spoke again, “Very well, Stone.” The sergeant turned on one heel and returned to the front of the group. Tony felt Duke’s elbow nudge him and when he turned toward his friend there was a grin spread across his face. Tony had chosen a name, which he could not change. From that moment forward he would be known as Stone by everyone within the base.

The day started with calisthenics as a warm up. Then they hit the course and though Tony had been worried about the task, he seemed to have no trouble with the challenge. His year with Collin in the emptiness had not only taught him a lot but it had prepared his body for the future. That thought pushed him harder, Tony wanted to live up to Collin’s memory. As Tony crossed the finish line before anyone else one thing echoed within his mind and that was his promise to survive. Through his gasps for breath he was still able to smile and he imagined Collin smiling back.

“What are you smiling for Stone?” the sergeant yelled.

Tony was broke from his dream again, “I’m alive sir!”

“For now,” Buzzkill responded, a sense of seriousness in his voice.

Tony’s smile faded as the rest of the boys joined him at the end of the obstacle course. They all struggled to breathe, some hunched over and holding their knees. They all poured sweat and begged for rest. Tony could only imagine how tired everyone else was but his muscles burned from the strain. Duke patted him on the back and congratulated him on finishing first. Tony feigned a smile again, unable to shake the sergeant’s words. He knew how dangerous the world was but the illusion of this place had allowed him to forget for a short time. The boy knew he would have to leave these walls eventually and he was sure that was what his instructor meant. 