Chapter 4

Fury's P.O.V

A whole week. That's how long we were stuck in these damn trucks. Children were crying without end, others were trying to comfort the crying ones, some were simply sitting in a corner silently. I was fortunate enough to find Faith in the dark. We sat together, hand in hand, with the fear that we could be separated at any point. I knew that Moon was somewhere in the truck too, because we had heard him smashing against the doors of the trailer for two days straight before finally giving up. Sprinkle was in here somewhere. He tried to fight back and get to Mum, but we were just thrown into the truck with everyone else. Everyone else was somewhere in the other trucks, or silently sitting in this truck with us.

"Fury, do you have any food?" Faith asked, his voice shaking from concealing back tears.

I searched through my pockets. Nobody had been given any food from the soldiers. Most of us should be able to survive at least another week without it, but some of us a little weaker then others. I had a feeling that I was one of them, but Faith was more important. I found the food bar I always kept with me just in case something happened. I took off the wrapper and gave it to Faith. He thanked me and began nibbling on it quietly.

The truck came to a slow stop, it's breaks screeching with age. My hand tightened a bit around Faith's out of nervousness. Somebody fiddled with the chains and lock on the outside, then opened the doors.

"Everybody out!" ordered the soldier.

Before anyone got a chance to obey the order, Moon jumped to his feet and charged at the soldier. The hothead tried tackling down the soldier, but he was easily overpowered. Moon was taken to the ground. With that example, everyone was quick to obey every order. The children all gathered in one area, surrounded by the soldiers who assured there was no chance of us escaping. As Faith and I joined the group, Sprinkle found us and held my other hand, making sure we weren't split up. The soldiers said they were taking us to another survivor camp, but we were in the middle of a forest. The smell of the ocean wafted through the air, we were nowhere near home now.

"What are you going to do with us?" Sprinkle asked.

The soldier ordering everyone around stood forward. "We'll show you. All children at the age of ten, come forward now and line up."

They did as he said. Everyone who was ten years old lined up in front of the group. They all looked down at the ground, some of them were still crying. One soldier stood behind them, holding her hand outward. This soldier was different to the others. She had metal armour, which looked newer then anything I've ever seen. She raised her hand slightly. There was a wave of energy, which commanded a box full of metal bullets to rise. As soon as she clenched her fist, the bullets shot forward at an amazing speed and went right through the children's heads. We all screamed in fear, knowing instantly that we were going to be next. The soldiers cleared the bodies of the poor children who died so young.

"Everyone who is eleven, come up front now!" ordered a soldier.

They, very reluctantly, stepped forward. The same thing happened, all were shot through the back of the head. If we're doing this in order, then Faith is going in three more rounds. Then I'm after him.

"Fourteen year olds, step forward!"

That's not in order at all! Faith was terrified, he clung to my arm so tightly I thought it might break. A soldier looked at their list and knew that Faith was fourteen. He was pulled by his shirt and shoved into the line, and I couldn't do anything about it. Sprinkle squeezed my hand and closed his eye sockets. I wanted to close mine, but I couldn't look away.

As the bullets raised up behind him, Faith's tears begun streaming. Nobody wanted to die. Not here, not yet. They wanted nothing more then to be in their parents arms, safe from harm, where they felt no fear.

Then, everything happened at once. The bullets shot, and as they shot, a black mist lashed out from the trees and covered the children in line. The bullets went in, but were simply spat out again. Immediately after, bombs went off and blasted dirt and grass everywhere, as well as sending soldiers flying. The black mist formed into a tall skeleton monster, who begun shooting the soldiers with a gun in each hand. From there, two birds flew in. One, a big, colourful parrot, the other a small budgie.

"Ark! Follow us, follow us!" The birds squawked.

"You heard the damn birds, run!" the misty skeleton ordered.

Everyone ran, following the two birds that flew so fast through the bullet storm. Everyone, that is, except Moon, who still held a grudge against the soldiers. He had managed to break free of his magic-proof cuffs and now was unleashing hell upon every soldier.

"Moon, come on!" Sage yelled. "We gotta get out of here!"

Moon didn't listen. He impaled a soldier with a goopy spike and threw them to the side, then attacked another. The next soldier happened to be the metal-wielding soldier. She shielded herself with a metal wall, then thrusted it forward at Moon. The misty skeleton jumped in front of Moon and destroyed the metal wall with a single attack.

"You've got spirit, kid," he said. "But if you want to make any use out of it, you've got to stay alive. Go follow the birds now!"

Moon huffed, but obeyed. He ran with the group of panicked children, joining Sage. The metal wielding soldier and the misty skeleton had a face off. The skeleton leaped at the soldier and spun like a drill. The soldier tried redirecting the skeleton with another wall of metal, but the skeleton phased through it and shot right through the soldier. The soldier fell to her knees, blood seeping through her shining armour.

While this was all happening, the birds had led us to more trucks. Standing in the open door of each was a human or monster, who told everyone to get in. But another monster, who stood out in the crowd because of his colourful clothes, ordered any skeletons to come with him. With panic clouding our ability to think things over, we followed orders without hesitation. All us skeletons, Faith, PJ, Gradient, Desire, Moon, Sprinkle, Faith, Sage, Westy, Raven and I, were taken to the truck up the very front of all the trucks. As soon as all the children were loaded in, the doors were closed and the trucks set off.

These trucks were by far more comfortable then the others. There were proper seats to sit on, oneway view windows to watch the chaos through, and a light to help us actually see. I sat down at a window and watched the soldier's trucks disappear into the distance, along with all the soldiers that were still alive.

Once I had sat down, Faith practically leaped into my arms and latched onto me with no sign of ever letting go. He was trembling and weeping, repeating the words "I want to go home" over and over. Sprinkle came and sat down next to me, pulling Faith and I into an unsure hug. Everyone here was nervous, hungry and generally terrified.

Who were these people? And where were they taking us?