Hi, this is BringTrouble posting. This is an independent Club Penguin blog, a personal blog, and a place for me (Trouble) to post parts of a story called the Pillaging. Feel free to post comments, okay? This part is more of a prologue than a chapter, and isn’t all that great. Just wait ’till chapter 11, you’ll be pleased.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning

 

They wouldn’t be back for a while. They were gone. They had abandoned me. No, more like, I had abandoned them. They had reached higher grounds. I hadn’t. I had stayed and helped my younger sister (I hate her, sometimes!) swim across the lake that used to be an interstate. I had been left behind, because the currents were too hard, the people were too numerous, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to go. I didn’t trust what the government was doing. Besides, their helicopters, as large as they were, won’t hold the whole state. It just wasn’t done. They would have to come back, and they would have to come back with supplies. Yet, the wave was near. If you stood on the roof and gazed out to the forests of a different state, far away, you could see the crest rise high above the evergreens and crash into the multiple houses fixed in a certain area, and the after effects created lakes above the remaining houses. Everything past Missouri, snaking through Minnesota, had been destroyed, except for the lower states. The northern states had been frozen solid. The southern countries were extremely dry and experienced vast famine. There was absolutely no escape. The wave would crash into the house and that would be it.

Where I was, there was nothing. I was alone. I was alone without food. All I had was water, but if I ever ran out of that, it wouldn’t be the end of the world because of all the water just outside the door.

I just wish that my knight and shining armor would show up and sweep me off my feet, and bring me to safety in his castle that he got from defeating this dragon of a flood, and returning to the kingdom where he was welcomed by the king and given the crown, that is, if he were to save a maiden in distress (that’s me, of course). I looked out the window, bored and soaked from going out in this weather to get to higher ground, only to fail and get soaked even more from the current, which I was fighting against. Every road ended eventually, but it seems mine was only a mile long, and I had already run most of it, and everyone who had ever ran with me, had eventually faded away with the passing athletes, who ran on and on for what seemed like an eternity- life that is a prison, a broken record- a road that never ends.

I turned from the window too quickly, because there was one person that hadn’t run faster than me on the road of life- I wish. That was lame. I guess when you are a maiden in distress; you have to come up with lame sayings. That’s what Cinderella and her magical shopping spree crap did. Of course the stupid dresses were sold separately- but who would know? USA has become nothing but Internet and lost independence. Justice was still there, and making up for freedom and independence because who in the world cares if your seatbelt is undone? It’s like saying: Eat more chicken. Oh. Wait, they’ve already said that, too.

I tapped the loaf of bread by my side, wondering if I should eat it. If I did, would I die more quickly? In a way, no, because I wouldn’t be hungry, but otherwise, I wouldn’t have any food and become hungry again and starve to death. What if they brought more supplies? What if they didn’t? What if the bread went bad? There were so many possible situations. I didn’t want to think about it. I’d save the bread for later.

I’d always thought my life would make a perfect story. A Teenage Mistake, No Rhyme No Reason, Apocalyptic Girl. Now I was sure. This was the apocalypse, and I wasn’t dead yet. If I’d die, who would write the story? No one. I would have to pick someone up on the way, get him or her to write the story. Then when the apocalypse was over everyone would be online talking about the book published about a real girl who died and got a book published during the apocalypse, and sent the books to the government to be distributed so children could keep up with their reading and—

No. That was lame too.

But there would be tens to thousands of Wikipedia (™) articles on me, Sarai Faulk, talking about how in the story I implied that I wanted someone to save me, that I wasn’t the best athlete, but my mind was always on sports, that I was an anarchist, that I liked food, but was cautious, that most of my friends were gone, and that my sister didn’t know how to swim, and I did. And all the rest of that junk that no one ever wants to hear about because it reminds those people of how screwed up their life is, too.

So I waited. I waited in the living room- flooded- I waited in the bedroom- cold- and I waited in the kitchen- cold and flooded. This was taking forever. All I needed was a simple-

Knock, Knock, went the door, startling me and I jumped from my seat immediately, almost running into the table in the kitchen. Who was at the door? More of, why was anyone at the door anyway? I swear, if this happens again I’ll run off screaming ‘Bloody Murder’. I forced myself to the door and didn’t bother to look out the window. I unlocked the door. No regrets. I didn’t like answering the door, but I was the only one here so…

Plus it’s apocalypse so what kind of entrepreneur would show up at your door in this type of weather?

But I didn’t know who was at the door. For some reason unknown, the boy at the door had a familiar looking face, and black hair, brown eyes, and a hoodie that all looked like that of someone’s I knew of. He had an iPod slung around his chest and headphones over his forehead.

“Hello?”

“Sarai,” the boy whispered, stepping in and leaning on me for support. He was soaked with rainwater. “I need you.”

“Who are you?” I mumbled, pushing him back, gently. He groaned and put his hand over his face.

“Travis. Do I look different?” he asked, weakly. “I almost drowned. Can I stay here?”

“Travis?” I looked at the boy. He looked a bit like my old friend, except he was taller and… hollowed. I let him pass into the house where he collapsed on the living room sofa.

“What’s wrong? Where are your parents?” He didn’t respond except for coughing up some water. He turned away from me.

“Blanket.” He mumbled, and I didn’t catch what he said.

“What?”

“Get me a blanket.” Travis muttered, louder. He groped for covers. I rolled my eyes and handed him a quilt, which he wrapped himself in. I wanted answers.

“Travis, did something happen that you don’t want to talk about?” I wondered, sitting beside his balled up form.

He shook his head, burying his face in the cloth. I patted his leg and stood up, grabbing the loaf of bread from the kitchen table, where I had left it. I broke a quarter of it off and walked back into the living room, and handed part of the bread to Travis, who ate it in a bite.

“Travis, I’m really concerned, what happened?”

“I don’t want to tell you.”

“So something did happen!”

“Not necessarily.”

I threw my hands up and glared at him. “Travis! Tell me what happened!”

He sighed and sat up, turning to face me fully. “My parents…” He looked out the window, and then paused completely, standing up.

“Someone’s at the door.” He said, urgently. He checked again. “A man, black car, pale skin, black and red hair… I swear I saw him right before I came here. I heard that he was asking for you. He didn’t seem happy…” Travis pointed to the table under the TV, which had a large cloth over it. I crawled under it, and I curled up, my heart thundering. I heard a clicking noise, and the creak of the front door opening. Travis must be distracting whoever was the door. This was happening all too fast. I clenched my fist and closed my eyes. Under the table smelled like my cat that had run away a while back.

“Is this where Sarai lives?” asked a piercing voice trying to force calmness into the situation, which was nearly impossible because his voice was sending chills up my spine. I shuddered and my breathing became heavy and hard to manage. The smell, the voice, and the entire situation made my heart race. I was dreaming. I knew I was dreaming. I didn’t bother to pinch myself; I didn’t want to be disappointed.

“No, just me.” Travis replied, his voice shaky.

“Where are your parents?” the man asked, his voice growing annoyed.

“Dead.” Travis muttered, lowly.

“No. You’re a terrible liar.”

“I saw them die!” Travis shouted. The door creaked, but stopped sooner than expected.

“You must be mistaken. Plus, I know this isn’t your house.” The man explained, in a cold and dry voice. He was gloating to himself.

“How do you know? I’ve lived here for seven years of my life! I think I know my own house.” Travis growled, trying to close the door again.

“Well, what’s the address?”

“Four three seven…” Travis sounded unsure at first, but hurriedly drew his voice and repeated himself.

“Idiot.” The man hissed. “Where’s the girl?” Footsteps stomped closer. I knew it wasn’t Travis. The man’s voice was too close.

“I, uh…” Travis hesitated, wondering what he should say. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, sir, this house is abandoned except for me, like I said.”

“You don’t even know the address.” The man scoffed, his footsteps turning back around. “Now where is she? I’ve been wasting too much of my time to find her, I’m not giving up now.”

“Why do you need her anyway?” Travis asked, coming closer to where I was. I shriveled back, so if he lifted up the skirt of the tablecloth to prove the man I wasn’t there, I would be safe.

“Evacuation plans. I’ve been asked… well, begged, to evacuate the whole state. I complained to the President, and he didn’t surrender well, but finally we agreed that I evacuate whoever was in the most danger. In the current situation, she’s in the most danger.”

“That doesn’t make sense. That’s a stupid lie. Unless you have proper identity and proper papers, I’m afraid that ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’.”

“Ah… so you do know where she is.”

“Perhaps.”

“I see… well, this is simple then. Since you have given me that information, I have a better idea of where she is, in this room. Somewhere…” the man paused and began to walk around, probably searching.

“You know, this government crap isn’t really working on me. Where are your papers, where is your ID, if so, what makes you so special to be evacuating people? What can the government do if you don’t accept? Nuke wherever you come from?” Travis asked, following the man’s footsteps.

“You have every right to believe what you want, but you won’t believe what I tell you.”

“Try me.”

“Fine, just so you’ll shut up,” the man spat, the footsteps halting in front of me. I sighed with relief. I heard papers shuffling and being given to someone. “Those are my warrants. This is my ID.” Something must have been handed off.

“The papers I can believe. This ID is fake.”

“Like I said, believe what you want, but that’s the real thing, and it also explains why I’m so ‘special’.” The man claimed. “What can your government do? They can do a lot actually. They can invade my world. First of all, if they ever come to my world, they will make it primitive and far too overprotective. Then, maybe they can finally test that cure they have for cancer. That’ll cut off most of the deaths. Then they can release the people and creatures that live in my world, causing never-ending chaos. They will unearth facts never meant to be unearthed by mortal eyes. They will come to some time-period where they can activate some war that was never meant to happen and then… that will end all existence past that point.”

“That’s exaggerating.”

“It’s the truth, though.” The man muttered, pulling the skirt of the tablecloth up, catching me off guard. “Well, I got what I came for. Good day, I have immortality to get back to.” I couldn’t even see his face. All I knew was that he was wearing jeans and boots.

“That’s hard to believe.” Travis muttered, trying to act cool when he was in fact very angry and exposed. He glanced at me and mouthed, ‘Run’. I shot up and tried to escape, but the man caught me by the hood of my jacket and spun me around to face him. I blushed in embarrassment, and his face remained emotionless. Such a handsome face! His features were chiseled to perfection and his eyes slanted in just the right way. His stunning silver eyes sparkled in the dimness of the room, flashing whenever lightning struck. Now I wasn’t sure who my knight was.

“You,” the man whispered, his voice even more frightening in his presence. He released his grip on my hoodie. “Are coming with me.”

“Why?” I managed to gasp.

“Sarai, I trust in you that it would be ignorant not to do as I say because if not, I have all the power to cast you away and let you drown with the insolence that was trying to keep you from safety. All I am doing is everything but evil. Come with me.” He hissed, turning on his heel and making his exit. “And, you, boy, it would be wise for you to do the same.” I looked briefly at Travis, and beckoned him to follow the man and I.

Now outside, I saw how damaged the lawn was, and how far we would have to walk to get to the man’s black car. “Sir, will we have to walk all that way?” I asked.

“It would seem to be so, oblivious.” The man grumbled, stepping into the water. “I didn’t want to get too close to the water, my car is too light, and may be carried away.”

“False.”

“You know what? Shut up, Travis.” The man grunted.

“How do you know my name?” Travis asked, startled.

“Shut. Up.” The man threatened to back hand Travis, and Travis backed up a bit, keeping close behind me. We walked in silence to his car, which was excessively hard to get to because of the tides coming our way. As if our humble state was an ocean.

“Sit in the back, don’t mind getting the seat wet.” The man motioned towards the backseats, and proceeded to unlock the car doors and sit in the driver’s seat, beside a woman with Roman features of all things, except for her dark, modern clothing. “Claire, I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

We sat in the back, where I got a better glimpse of the woman, deemed Claire by the man. She had long, straight black hair, dyed blue at the ends in the same pattern as the man’s hair, a soft and smooth looking freckled face, crystal blue eyes which shone lime green around the pupil.

“It’s okay, Silver.” Silver. What a lame name. Who’s named Silver? This man, obviously, but who else? “So there were two kids?” She turned back to us and smiled pleasantly. Travis bit his lip, hiding his reddening face beneath the hood of his jacket, which was still dripping wet.

“Yeah, Travis and Sarai. Took me a while, they weren’t willing to come.”

“Well, Silver, you aren’t exactly the most friendly guy.” I retorted, hinting his name with mockery, while buckling my seatbelt.

Claire shrugged, nodding casually. Travis agreed, too. Silver tensed up a bit, and cranked up the car, looking hurt by Claire agreeing. The car shot off into hyperspace right as Travis could fasten his seatbelt.

I could swear everything was going so fast it seemed as if everyone in the car was going in slow motion. Travis’s headphones slipped off his head and lurched, slowly, toward the back of Claire’s seat. At impact it was sent back at Travis’s kneecap, and he shouted out in pain for what seemed like the longest time, until we went back to our normal speed, while he was finishing up with a short, “Ooow!”

“Well you mastered time and space,” I began. Silver looked me, his hair was out of place and his bangs hung way over his eyes. He blew them out of his face and smiled at me angrily, trembling with fury, and I knew something wasn’t right. So I didn’t finish my sentence.

Travis on the other hand was rubbing both his temples and his kneecap, which was very hard to do and looked like he was doing some kind of hand motion only seen some select few areas…

 Claire would flash her wedding ring accidentally sometimes, while patting Silver’s shoulder as he drove through the fog and rain, water drenching the sleek, beautiful car.