This is my first story so tell me what you think as it progresses. Prologue: The sun rose above the tree line, just as it did before the great uprising only now it didn't feel the same. It feels like I've lived in two different worlds, one peaceful and at ease, the other, this one, full of war and violence where survival takes priority against everything else. I wish I could have just gone back to those days, before the great uprising. That all happened about a year ago, the USA had military presence in just about every country, leaving the mainland almost completely defenseless. Many people were more than upset with the corruption in the government, leading to the great uprising. They destroyed the government and soon after lawlessness fallowed. People formed groups called settlements and those settlements were like a country. It was March 9th, 2014 when the great uprising started. I was 17 years old when it happened. My name is Sterling and I am a scout for the settlement of North Estate.
Chapter 1: I put on my black biking gloves, put up the hood on my black sweatshirt, and opened the drawer at the head of my bed in the barracks. Inside was some spare clothing, a 22caliber rifle, a combat knife, and a XD9 pistol, as well as ammo and some spare mags. I put the bullets in the magazines and put one of them in the XD9 and the other three in the pockets of my jeans. I loaded up my 22 and made sure the safety was on then put the strap on my shoulder, then I made sure the safety was on my XD9 and put that in the holster on the right side of my belt, and I slipped the knife in it's sheath on my left. I was all set for my scout mission and left the barracks and waited for my partner. The barracks was made from some sort of big wooden building, then we had about three houses, a destroyed one, and a cafeteria/general store. Surrounding the settlement was a wall made from scrap metal, and stuff like cars. The gate was simply an opening in the wall with a walkway to go over it on and a garage door. "Sterling, you ready?" a voice asked. It was my partner Will, he was 17 which was a year younger then me. He was about average height had light brown hair and green eyes. He wore jeans with a tan shirt under a jacket and carried some sort of submachine gun, I think it was a MP5. "Ya let's go, we need to map out the area 1.7 miles southwest of here," I replied. We then made our way to the gate which the sentries opened for us.
Chapter 2: Will and I walked through the opened gates and heard it close behind us. We got inside the tree line and into the forest trying to stay as quiet as possible while maintaining a good speed. I constantly scanned around observing the terrain. About twenty minutes went by and we were nearing our objective. The forest was becoming less and less dense of trees and other vegetation. We got through and there was a large hill blocking our path. "now what?" Will asked. "we should find a somewhat concealed vantage point on that hill to scout the area on the other side," I replied. Our orders were to find what was beyond this point as no other scout from North Estate has been passed that hill until now. "Ok let's go, I have the camera," Will said as we began our advance up the hill. We got over it and there was a great spot in a sort of ditch where we could set up at. As I looked out I noticed a small caravan of people out in the distance. I pulled out my 22 and looked through the scope. It looked like a gang of slave catchers, they would find stray people out in the wilderness and sell them as slave labor to certain settlements. "looks like we have a slaver caravan, five guards, and a couple imprisoned," I said to Will. "there must be a settlement nearby," he said. "Will..." I said as I enhanced the scope to get a clearer vision of the slaves. "Yes Sterling?" he asked. "I think I finally found Kaylee," I said. He looked at me knowing what I was preparing to do. "You can't risk the mission for her," he told me trying to talk me out of it. "you already took the pictures and have the info we were sent, for now take it back to Thrice I'll head that way as soon as I have her," I said. He reluctantly left and I lined up a shot that would take out two guards, I took of the safety and fired. The other three slavers dropped down and searched for where the shot came from. I fired again taking out another, then one of the slaves tried to run away but they shot him. Kaylee was still ok and that's all that mattered to me. I shot the last two and ran to her. Kaylee was my girlfriend before the great uprising, we were separated during that horrible event. She was everything to me and I vowed to find her one day. "Sterling? Is that you?" I heard her say though we were still at least a hundred feet away. "Kaylee!" I yelled. Suddenly I heard the sound of a gunshot and immense pain in my left arm, I fell to the ground and my vision went black, the last thing I saw was her copper hair.
Chapter 3: When I woke up I was in the hospital house of North Estate. "he's awake," a voice said. "wait Thrice, give him some ten minutes to mentally repair his conscious self," another voice said. "Five,"the first voice said again who I figured to be Commander Thrice. "where's Kaylee?" I asked. "who?" was the response though I didn't catch who said it. "The girl I was with, I saved her from slavers and I guess I got shot and blacked out," I explained. "I don't know what you did or was but when we found you there were six other bodies but none alive and none had any weapons or resources including you," Thrice said. "What happened?" I asked confused and in pain but most of all heartbroken that I finally found her but I lost her. "We don't know you were the only one there, we sent a small rescue crew to get you and what I told you is what I know." "I have to find her, if there is a nearby settlement she has to be there," I said to myself. "You are in no position to be leaving this room much less the settlement," Thrice said sternly. "Just get me a pistol I'll be fine," I said. "Listen Sterling, I've never heard you mention any Kaylee until now, but you are not leaving this room besides your scout friends are here to see you so act like a leader not some lost puppy trying to find their master." Thrice left and in came Will and Joyce, "I shouldn't have left u alone," Will said looking at by arm. "Oh my god, are you okay?!" Joyce asked. "Yeah I'm fine, don't worry I'll be out with you guys in a week until then just continue the usual sweep in the forest except tomorrow, I would like you two to search past the hill for the existence of a settlement in that area and be extremely vigilant and cautious," I said. Joyce was my age though a few months younger, she usually wore kind of what I did except she wore a black jacket instead of sweatshirt, she had light brown hair that fell just past her shoulders and crystal blue eyes. The next week was extremely long and boring the highlight of each day was when Joyce and Will came and reported their u eventful sweeps. They also couldn't find any sign of a settlement nearby. The week was nearing an end though and my arm was feeling better though I still didn't regain full use of it yet. Soon I would return to my work in the field and explain the plan to my team.
Chapter 4: My arm had almost completely healed and I was given permission to return to work. I went to Thrice for the final okay. "Don't stray from the objective," he said handing me another pistol. I put the mag in and slipped it into my holster, "Yes sir," I said. I went to get Will and Joyce from outside the barracks. "You guys set?" I asked. "Ya let's go," Will said. "Wait," I said, "I'm not coming back." "what are you talking about?" Joyce asked alarmed. "I'm going off to find Kaylee no matter what, if you want to you can join me, you two are the only friends I've had since the great uprising and I would love for you to join me but I know that would be asking a lot so it's your choice." there was a short pause then Joyce began to speak, "this is completely insane but I'm in." "So am I," Will said. "alright grab all your gear and pack a back, meet here in ten minutes," I said. We went into the barracks and grabbed our stuff, I grabbed my grey backpack and put all my ammo and spare mags inside along with my spare clothing, some food, and a bottle of water. I put the backpack on and left the barracks waited for the others, when they got there we left through the main gate believing we would never return or if we did we would be killed for abandoning. It was just us now, just us three.
Chapter 5: We walked through the forest as usual. By the time they realize we either deserted, died, or was captured we'd be to far for them to send a squad after us. "Anyone have a spare knife?" I asked remembering I no longer had one. "here," Will said handing me a spare combat knife. I took the blade thanked him and slid it in the sheath on my belt. We kept walking, towards the hill, almost completely silently. "This time we go around the hill staying in the safety of the forest heading east," I said. Going into the open would be too risky. I didn't want what happened to me to happen again, or to them. My only thought was to find Kaylee and keep Will and Joyce safe. We continued going around the hill which took a few minutes, we then continued through the dense forest and overgrown vegetation. After about fifteen minutes of walking in the same direction we noticed the forest getting significantly less dense. Soon it cleared to a lake, about a mile away was a large settlement. "Ok we set camp here, only a very small very hidden fire, rest awhile then proceed to scout that settlement," I said. We took of our backpacks and used them as seats. Joyce took out a small pan and filled it with water from the nearby lake. "Will, start digging a hole for the fire, Joyce could you come with me to gather some sticks?" I asked. "Ok Sterling," she replied. We gathered a decent sized stack of dry sticks and returned to the site. Will made a fire and Joyce started boiling up some stew. We ate and talked about stuff we did before the great uprising. The whole time I kept glancing over to the settlement. We packed our gear and began our journey, hopefully luck was on our side as the scenario was not.
Chapter 6: We had agreed on first watching the settlement to see if it would be friendly or not. The walls were made of bricks as well as scrap metal and was obviously more advanced than North Estate. When we got near the location of the settlement we noticed a cliff close enough to the walls to barely see inside. We carefully climbed the cliff and started watching. What we saw was horrible, men, women, and children all wearing tattered dirty clothes doing all sorts of labor. There were also many people in ragtag uniforms with guns making sure the laborers did what they were supposed to do. This couldn't possibly be where Kaylee is I thought to myself, yet it would make more sense that she would end up in a slave labor driven settlement after being found in the compony of slavers. I decided what I had to do and I prepared to tell my friends. "It must be a nightmare down there," Will said. The settlement was much much bigger than North Estate and looked like it was built around some sort of factory. "I'm going to get captured and use that as an opportunity to search the inside for Kaylee, in three days, at noon, create a distraction to help me and maybe Kaylee escape we will meet up at camp after take my stuff there and watch me from this point in the meantime," I said taking off my backpack as well as handing them my knife and pistol. "Sterling this is crazy!" Joyce yelled in a whisper. "Maybe but it could also be the only way to find Kaylee, I'll be fine just follow the plan." I descended from the cliff and walked over to the settlement. Suddenly three people jumped from trees, they dressed the same as the guards from the caravan from a week ago. They had rope and kept coming closer, just then I felt something hard hit the back of my head and I blacked out.
Chapter 7: I woke up and looked around. I was in a dark stone room, the only exit being a bar door which was locked. I was still in the same clothing as before. All my gear was gone, though I gave it all to Will and Joyce before I walked into the trap. I walked up to the bar door and looked around, there were many more cells but I couldn't tell which were filled. "Everyone up!" a forceful voice yelled as a man in the same outfit as before opened the door and threw me out. There were about thirty other people in the group. "where are we going?" I whispered to one of the people next to me. "To the field," a female voice replied from under the hooded figure. It was Kaylee. "Kaylee! Ok after I survey the landscape I'll tell you my plan of escape, I have two others outside the city waiting for us." "What are you talking about?" she responded. "I mean I'm going to get us out of here," I said. We walked through the hallway and eventually got outside. Thats when I saw the firing squad. That was the first time I thought about my plan, how would I have moved on from this point, running from everyone just me , Kaylee, Will, and Joyce alone with two whole settlements after us. They lined us up, loaded their guns, and fired.