CHAPTER ONE: WHAT'S LEFT ISN'T RIGHT

JETT’S POV

It was a sudden transition from darkness to light, some would anciently refer to it as having visited ones forefathers. I stumbled out of my bed like a one legged drunkard. The floor, I found myself on the floor; I hit something. Looking back I realized I had fallen over after bumping into a pile of clothes I had left unattended to for lifetimes. No time to waste, I thought as I got up to clean myself up.

Looking into the mirror I saw a face I’ve never seen before, the blue eyes that glowed in the dark had faded like a dying star, the natural brownish blonde hair was browner than usual, and trust me it wasn’t naturally browner. It was long and unkempt and concealed most of my face. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was to suspect me for being a criminal.

 I picked my toothbrush to dig into the gold mine on my face when I noticed my once trimmed pink lips had turned pale and chapped. Basically, I looked older than I remembered and obviously more unkempt. Of course I would, it has been three years since I’ve really been ‘alive.’

Picking a clothe from the pile I had stumbled over, I covered my shame, not minding its stench, and headed out to face the world.

When I say the world, I mean this tiny remote town we lived in, and when I say ‘we’, I mean the remainder of humans left on the planet or so we’ve been told by the adults. According to the adults, the world went through some dramatic changes. A very deadly virus spread throughout the globe, well that only happened because people are not as introverted as I am else… 

The virus couldn’t be treated because it mutated every hour in its host and gains an immunity to its former weakness and also mutates when it’s transferred to another person. This virus spread quickly and wiped out all the humans from the face of the earth except for the lucky few that managed to lived in this town that was protected from the virus because of the location.

This town called Nea Sotiria, Greek for New Salvation. It is surrounded by a forest made up of mysterious trees that can filter out the virus and other harmful particles from the air.

This town is indeed a safe place to be considering the state of the outside world but it’s not a normal place to be or at least that’s the feeling I always get.

The town has an eerie air about it, not just because it’s cloudy most of the time, it’s rarely sunny and barely rains due to the atmospheric changes caused by the virus as the adults say. On the sunny days the adults come out, they just stay in their houses doing whatever comes their way while only the children go out to play or hang out.

The adults also always act aloof and care free, not giving a full explanation to weird occurrences.

 I remember once when I was way younger, one of the kids living two blocks away from my house got missing and the adults assured us that he was safe and will be found and till this present moment he is still ‘safe and found.’ If I could find a way out of the city I wouldn’t hesitate to leave but I can’t or at least that’s what the adults tells us.

They say not to get near the forest that it’s not safe but they never tell us why it’s not safe. Usually no child living in this town is older than eighteen. As soon as you turn eighteen the adults throw a ‘Coming of Age party’ for you and send you out of town to look for greener pastures outside of town.

But none of the children that have been sent off ever returns. I know this very well, after all my older brother was sent off three years ago when I was thirteen and he promised to return soon but it seems that three years isn’t ‘soon’. But I won’t sit down no more and live this boring and caged life, that’s why I left my house today for the first time in two weeks. Today I’m going to venture into the forest and find out the truth for myself.

‘Jett,’ a soft voice called out my name.

 ‘Why are you spacing out like that? We were meant to meet like an hour ago’ Cindy stated with a frown on her face.

Cindy has been my friend since we were little, she had a quick temper but she was always honest and cared for others. I remember the first time I tried going into the forest alone, when I was ten, she got furious when I was brought back by my brother. She cried also out of relief. Though she was always so prim and formal she had a very good humour and could easily melt the coldest of hearts.

‘You really shouldn’t be surprised, he hasn’t been out in a while…’ Ravi said with a smile

‘…so he’s still finding it hard walking around.’

Ravi was also, more or less, a friend of mine. I met him after my brother left three years ago. He was a dashing young lad, with a smooth, glowing ebony skin and a smile that could win the hearts of even demons. He had was average in height, with thin and tender pink lips – I’m sure anyone would die to kiss them, even men. His voice was also very soothing, the sound of it alone could ease all your hearts troubles. He was a full ladies man and the full package, and why not apart from all his wonderful physical features and his dandy style of dressing he was also very trustworthy.

‘Nah, I was just reviewing our plan. It’s best we go now,’ the sun was out at its peak and no adult was in sight, as usual, so it was best we departed on our secret adventure. As rode on our bicycles passed the streets there were still no signs of any adults but we knew they were watching us.

I could see the curtains open and close as we drove bye.

Their stares was enough signal to us that they disapproved of our ‘playing outside’ but if they didn’t like it then they should come stop us. Oops they can’t after all we’re ‘invincible’ as long as the sun is out.

When we arrived there were four more kid there. Ethaine, Gryffin, Tess and Testein.

Ethaine and Testein were siblings. Twins. They both were glasses and were pretty much plain, just wearing a tucked in shirt and pants. Their gelled black hair sweeping to the left as usual and faces covered with zit. They didn’t really like playing out with the other kids but were always up for an adventure, that’s why they agreed to come along today.

Tess, was a smart girl, in the sense of sociability, she was a brunette freckled beauty with an amazing fashion sense. A slightly oversized t-shirt and a skirt balanced on a pair of sneakers. A dandy look just like Ravi. She was a good flirt and knew how to manipulate people to do her biding and that’s how she was able to convince Gryffin, who was head over heels for her to come along.

Gryffin was a chubby wimp. He lacked a huge chunk of self confidence and was therefore easily manipulated which was a shame because he was very quick witted. In this world there’s no place where we go to learn, I think my brother called them ‘schools’.

He always told us about the old world and he even taught us to read the weird symbols on the boards on the streets, I believe he called them ‘words’ without the adults knowledge. He also told us that in those days they had a material made of trees where information was stored, he called them ‘books’ but now there are no books anywhere. I don’t know how he got to know all those things about the past that he taught us but I knew he was unto something and I’m gonna find out what it was today.

‘Why are you wearing that?’. Cindy asked pointing to the diadem I had around my neck. My brother had given it to me the night before his departure. It had a silver frame that looked like a woman and a beast, standing side to side, holding a baby. The beast had horns and an evil grin. He said that those beasts were called, ‘demons.’ In the middle of the diadem was a green gem with eight edges.

‘I like it’ I said tying my hair into a ponytail.

We set out into the forest. As we walked, I stood in awe of the very unnatural looking trees. They were extremely huge and tall. We felt like ants. On the trees were marks, three or sometimes four diagonal marks that were etched into the barks. I didn’t know what caused those marks or if they were natural but my instincts told me to be on alert.

‘Dried blood’, Gryffin said pointing to a tree at our left. The tree had the same marks, dried blood and some shredded clothes lay at the foot of the tree. ‘I wanna turn back like right now y’all,’ Gryffin whined.

He was a wimp but I didn’t blame him this forest gave of a very eerie feeling. Markings on the trees, dried blood, shredded clothes and whatever comes next.

‘Eyaaaaaaaaaaaa!,’ Tess cried. She hit something and fell into a pool… A pool of blood. Moving her feet, she noticed that her foot had been on a head. It had on eye, the other was gone. The face had been shredded beyond recognition and maggots creeped in and out of the mouth. Or was used to be the mouth; one side of the jaw had been torn out.

‘Ew, ew, ew, ew, ewwww’ she said trying desperately to shake the blood of her body. I paid no heed to her cries. I saw something that caught eyes.

‘Lets leave, Jett,’ said Ethaine.

‘Yeah, I totally agree before we end up like that’, Testein seconded.

I kept moving to my goal as Ravi followed suite and Cindy observed from a distance.

I said a hand, maybe the hand of the corpse we just saw, it had on three fingers but it was holding onto something. It was almost completely covered by leaves and dirt so was very hard to spot.

‘I can’t believe it!’, I said as I picked it up.

‘What’s it?’ asked Ravi. And Cindy, ‘Yah, Whatcha got?’.

‘It’s…a book!’, I said with joy. ‘Finally a book, in this messed up world.’

It was looking very bad, dried blood on its pages. The cover, red, was thick and torn at parts. As I opened the book, a series of dust escaped to the heavens. It did so for the first few pages. The pages were filled with drawings, I couldn’t really understand them because I was just perusing the book but…the last few pages were torn out and the back had those same marks the trees had. No matter. At least I got something out of this adventure. Then sudden the air got even more unsettling. I could feel is being heavily stated at and not in the same manner the adults did at us but way different. As preys.

‘Let’s head back Cindy’, I said putting the book in my backpack.

Silence.

‘Cindy?’.

She was gone. We all liked around but no traces of her were left. We started calling her name.

‘Cindy!!’ Ethaine cried.

‘This isn’t funny if it’s a joke. Come out Cindy’, Tess said forcing an awkward smile on her face. ‘Isnt that right, Testein?’…… No response.

‘Testein?’ she called looking around. He was also gone.

This was the point that it became clear to us that we had only one option left….RUN!!