Episode One, Part 1:
New Life

In the clearing of trees outside of the Bunker, there was a towering, faded-yellow bus parked up. Wynn knew that it was waiting for him.

Before he could speculate where his family was being taken, or what was happening, or even have the chance to feel the blades of grass under his bare feet, he found himself being shoved forward again with no conception of where he was going.

After almost falling over, Wynn found his balance and knew that he had to find his family before anything else happened. He began pushing his way through the cluster of people from his Bunker, relieved at every one of them he saw, but none more than his younger siblings who stood on the far end of the mob, each holding tightly onto their mother.

"Wynn!" Martha yelled, pulling his siblings behind her as she fought to reach him.

Barely a second passed by before he was smothered in his mother's embrace, both of her arms wrapped tightly around him before her attention was once again demanded by Elara.

Wynn looked down at his sister, noticing a look of terror etched deep onto her features; an emotion stronger than anything he had ever seen on her.

At least he had been on the ground before, Wynn thought to himself, knowing that it put him at an advantage. He was five years old when he moved into the Bunker, but Elara was born inside - knowing nothing more to the world than the walls that surrounded her and how far her imagination could carry her past her childhood, bedtime stories. The terrifying and traumatic introduction to the rest of the world was something she was unprepared for and any opportunity she had with making peace with leaving home was violently stolen away from her.

"Wait..." Quill spoke from beside Wynn, trying to reign in his nerves long enough to form a coherent sentence. "Where's Dad and Ares?"

They all began to look around, scanning the faces of their friends and extended family for the two that were missing, growing more and more worried as each second passed until a loud, roar of commotion drew their attention back to the Bunker's entrance.

Everyone's heads turned in the same direction watching as Ares, Wynn's father, and Azha - the Chancellor of the Bunker - were all shoved towards the group with their wrists bound together in rope and their backs aching from the harsh pressure of a gun pressed against them.

Once again, Wynn's mother cried out in fear, not even sparing a thought for her own safety as she hurried over towards her husband, and eldest son, pulling them away from the peril of the weapons.

Ares let out a heavy breath, stepping past his parents and reaching Wynn, motioning for him to undo his restraints.

Wynn had to pull at them for several moments before they even managed to loosen up, wondering how if they were that tight, they hadn't managed to cut off Ares' blood flow.

Right as he was about to turn to their father and ask him what they were supposed to do - how they were going to fight back, how they were going to return to the Bunker - the girl who led the raid moved to stand in front of the bus, calling out for everyone to listen.

"There's no need to panic!" She said, hitting her fist on the side of the vehicle which ironically only made everyone more afraid of her. As if on cue, the door to the bus opened, alerting everyone to the man inside who was waiting to drive them away into their daunting fate. It was at that moment that Wynn suddenly felt the urge to look around, trying to see if there were any more people lurking in the bushes or hiding just out of sight.

"We're not going to harm you, the guns are just insurance," she continued. "We're going to help you onto the bus and we'll take you back to our camp, Basilisk. You'll be safe there."

Wynn furrowed his brows in frustration, doubting that the girl was seeing the hypocrisy in her words. "We were safe in the Bunker," he muttered under his breath, quickly earning an elbow from Ares who overheard him and after gaining Wynn's gaze, shook his head as if to warn him to not give their captors a reason to dislike him.

"Once you're on, sit with your family," she ordered. "That way we can keep track of how many of you there are, and prepare your place at our camp."

She then turned to two of the guards closest to her, addressing them by names and giving them her next command. "Ellery, Adair, load them up," she said, taking a step back as her people approached Wynn's family, reaching out for the nearest person in sight.

It just so happened to be a girl named Lyra - Wynn's best friend from the Bunker, and someone he had barely had a chance to think about amidst all the chaos they were consumed in. But now that he knew where she was, and now that he could see the large set of hands pulling her away from her own mother, Wynn felt compelled to move.

He ran without thinking, barely dodging Ares' attempts to grab hold of him, and raced to Lyra's side, glaring up at the guard who had a hold of his friend.

"Huh... Pretty little thing has a boyfriend," one of the men teased, chuckling along with the other at the pair's innocence as Wynn and Lyra stepped onto the bus, gulping down a mouthful of fear each as they gazed at the empty rows ahead.

He completely disregarded the girl's order and sat down next to Lyra instead of claiming a row for his own family and waiting for them to join, instead, he used his time to shoot glares at the guardsmen as they followed the people from the Bunker onboard, each doing a headcount to tally up the number of prisoners they had obtained.

Wynn only managed to look away from them when he felt a hand reach over and hold onto his shoulder, and he turned to face the row behind him, finding Elara trembling in between their brothers.

"I'm scared," she whispered, barely loud enough for them to hear, despite sitting right next to her. It was almost as if she thought that if she were to make a noise or speak slightly too loud, then something terrible would happen to her as a result. After all, it was only reasonable to assume given how loud and brutal her first exposure to the world had been. How was she to believe anything else?

As the echo of his breaking heart pounded inside his chest, Wynn realized he didn't have much to offer her, and neither did Quill or Ares; just the reassurance that she wasn't facing it alone; that each of them was just as deathly afraid as the other, and a comforting arm from Ares that wrapped tightly around her.

"I know," Ares said, keeping his eyes focused on the guards up ahead. "We are, too."

As the last person boarded the bus, the door shut behind them, sealing everyone inside and locking away their hopes of a last-minute escape.

The girl in charge stood at the front of the aisle, whistling until all eyes were on her, which she noticeably seemed to enjoy.

"I understand you're all afraid," she said but, despite her words, her voice was lacking a certain kind of sensitivity to make Wynn feel any ounce of comfort. If anything, the almost routineness to her voice made him a little distrusting of her.

"But I ask that you all save your questions for arrival at our camp. Everything will be explained once we get you settled there."

Wynn blocked out the rest of her speech, focusing on his parents who sat in the row behind his siblings, trying to see from their reactions if they had any perception or assumption about what was going to happen to them, let alone what was waiting for them at their destination.

His father seemed on edge - constantly glancing out of the windows of the still-parked bus, feeling as though they were all sitting ducks waiting on open water, ready to be shot at any second. And his mother seemed to be mumbling something to herself, perhaps a prayer - though she had never been very religious - as she leaned forward in the seat in front of her, trying to hold onto all three of Wynn's siblings that were within reach.

"Bus is loaded. We got everyone on board. ETA is 10 minutes."

Wynn turned back around, focusing intently on the girl at the front of the bus as she spoke into a radio, not seeming to notice his staring.

"No sign of Blood Riders. We're leaving as planned. Riverly, over."

As Wynn began to try and comprehend her words, the bus suddenly vibrated to life, shaking beneath him as it began to drive forward - a feeling so alien to him that he gripped onto the seat in front of him, attempting to make everything feel steady again.

What was the girl talking about? He wondered. Who was she talking to? What was Blood Riders?

As questions swarmed his mind, the only answer Wynn could come up with was that she was talking in some kind of a code; a way to communicate right in front of them without anyone knowing what she was saying. Only, it made his already anxious heart tremble under the additional fear of everything else. She could be opening talking about a plan to kill all of them right in front of them, and they would have no idea of her intentions, no chance to be able to defend themselves against whatever was being planned for them.

Feeling the instinct to warn his parents of what he thought was happening, Wynn spun around, rising to his feet and ready to sneak down the aisle towards them, but something stopped him...

Out of nowhere, there was a ground-shaking explosion from outside the bus. Wynn ducked down, trying to shield his head instinctively as did everyone else on board, including the girl who, as Wynn found a second to glance over at her, seemed just as alarmed as he was.

"Basilisk, this is Riverly," she said, addressing herself on the radio. She grabbed onto the seats around her, trying to keep upright as she glanced out of the windows in search of an answer. "We've got company..."

By the tone of her voice, it would have seemed that she had everything under control, as though they weren't all afraid of the strange noises they were hearing from outside, but as Wynn studied her expression, he knew things had taken a turn for the worse; that the girl's plans were falling apart right in front of her.

It was then that he noticed that she didn't seem much older than him - noticeably the youngest out of all of the people who had found them - but she was the one in charge. Undoubtedly, the one with the most authority. She began giving out orders to some of her guards, instructing them to leave the bus with their weapons at the ready, trying to convince them that they were still in control of the situation. But under her facade, there was a moment of weakness that only Wynn seemed to pick up on. It was how he knew that something terrible was happening, even before the ground had its chance to tremble again.

By the arrival of the second explosion, there was what felt like a sudden loss of gravity; a deafening pierce ringing through Wynn's ears as the bus rippled through the air, agony subsequently surfacing on every inch of his skin as shards of glass and sparks of fire flew across his sight.

The next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes after what he could only assume to be a prolonged loss of consciousness and felt the brutal and unforgiving realities of the world pounding all over his skin.

He tried to make sense of the burning world as it swayed in his vision, his disorientation only intensified by the screaming erupting in every direction.

He pressed his hands to his ears, not yet considering trying to move and only wanting the noise to go away.

What sounded like bullets being fired, shot over his shoulder, and he tried to wedge himself further against the mud that he unknowingly found himself already pressed into, wanting to get lower and lower to avoid the possibility of being shot, but it was no use. He needed to hide.

Wynn blinked several times to reset his vision, but it was hopeless. He couldn't tell which direction the Bunker was in, or where any of his family were, but he could see what appeared to be a cave several metres away at the top of a slope. If he could get there, he could stay hidden until all the commotion stopped, or maybe even make it back into the Bunker at some point.

More than anything, he to find his parents and siblings, but how could he even think of trying to find his family when the world wouldn't even stop spinning long enough for him to move? How could he try and save them if he didn't even know who to save them from? If he wasn't even sure he could save himself?

No, he thought. He wasn't dying out here. Not today.

Wynn sucked in a sharp breath as he glanced around the clearing, trying to get his timing right. After what felt like forever, he pushed himself to his feet, surprised to find how dizzy he was. He moved in the direction of the cave - only one of his legs seeming to work - and dodged every bullet he saw pass in front of him.

He was almost there. Just a couple more steps... A couple more seconds-

Someone gripped onto the back of his shirt, pulling him in the opposite direction of where he was trying to go. He tried to push the person away, not even having time to see if it was one of his family members, but a force sent him flying through the air before he could find out.

The pit of fire in his pathway had exploded, sending a cloud of black smoke to mushroom in the air, covering everything in his sight.

It didn't burn him. Unless, of course, his skin was already so burnt that he couldn't feel any more damage to it. But the force of the explosion sent him flying backward along with the person who had saved him.

He collided into a mountain of rocks, banging his head in the process, already feeling blood slither along his skin in more places than one.

With his new world already in flames, Wynn's heavy eyes fell shut into a sleep that he wouldn't be able to wake up from soon, succumbing to the heat of the dark, amber-colored chaos that consumed him. 

One // Part One
But after 14 years inside, their secrets had run out a long time ago.

The first official chapter for The Boy from the Bunker and of course, it ends in complete chaos. What a terrifying introduction to the world for Wynn and his family.

11/08/22.