Here is a link to a website I made for the story....http://acollectionofstoriescom.weebly.com/
The four of them stood in a small alley just two blocks away from the museum. Pennet looked all of them over to make sure they didn't have any injuries. However it was obvious his mind was elsewhere.
Trisella was very annoyed with Rina for having left the group to do her own thing. She stood a little aways from the group and glared at Rina through smoldering brown eyes.
Rina was very tired so she slumped against a severely dented dumpster and closed her eyes. She had a few deep cuts from the debris but nothing serious.
The alley wasn't much lighter than the museum although dawn was just beggining to break in the distance.
Ne'car stayed near the entrance with the gun close at hand in case there were any gangs lurking about.
Pennet patted Ne'car on the shoulder to let him know it was safe for them to move out.
The four of them made their way to the old crumpled bank.This was where they all met up when it was time for thier nightly escavades. Pennet waved to them that it was time to go thier seperate ways.
Rina walked home alone in the dark. She lived the farthest away.
By the time she had reached her apartment building, the crack of dawn was lighting up the sky.
She went into the building's lobby careful to be quiet and not wake any of her neighbors.
The elevator was definately not operational anymore, nothing electrical was.
Rina grabbed her key and set to work on the many locks that led to her apartment.
She was one of the few lucky ones to still have a place to live, as desolate as it was.
Finally the last one clicked open and Rina gingerly stepped into her room, shut and locked the door, and walked into the
kitchen as quietly as she could.
The floor boards creaked under her feet.
She opened the medicine cabinet to get something to treat her wounds.
Suddenly the light flipped on and Rina spun around to see her mother standing in the doorway with worry etched on her face. "Rina, where have you been? I've been worried sick!" Cried her mother with an edge of anger to her voice.
Rina looked alot like her mother, with her short brown hair and a petite figure.
She got her bright green eyes from her father.
Rina knew she could never tell her mother where she had really been. Her parents didn't want her to have any part of the rebellion and were very against anyone who did.
They especially were ashamed of thier long time friend, Pennet's father, who was one of the leaders.
"Loosing his wife must have been what drove him over the edge," said Rina's parents when they explained to their other friends what they thought had happened to Pennet's father.
"I was out with some friends," mumbled Rina as casually as she could.
Her mother pressed her fingers to her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut, "Please don't tell me it was another one of those murder mystery parties." She sighed.
Rina thought Back to her first murder mystery party. The murder mystery part meant that someone actually had to be murdered, for real.
She shuddered remembering the vote that decided who was to be murdered.
The sick part was that most of the party guests wanted to be murdered.
No one really wanted to live anymore, they just had to survive. Everyone for themselves.
There was hardly any food and hiding was a common daily activity. It was a truely horrible world to live in. Death was welcome for most.Parties were rare and very short, they were mostly meant to keep the youth from going insane.They also had to be done in secret.
After the vote, someone turned out the lights and The person who was to be murdered would go around the room and tap someone on the head. That was the person who had to kill them.
Rina could still remember gripping the knife in her hand that everyone had received as a party favor and praying that she wouldn't be picked to be the murderer.
She also remembered how her veins turned to ice as she heard the horrified scream and the thump of the dead body as it hit the floor.
She rememeberd her terror as she stared at the dead face of the victim twisted in pain. She pushed the thoughts out of her head.
"No, we were just spending some time at Necar's," She finally said, even though she knew her mother wouldn't believe her.
Surprisingly, her mother just shook her head and and sighed. "As long as your you're safe, Jeff's parents said Jeff never made it home the other night and they found his dead body in the street right by that old museum. Everyone is losing their kids these days."
Rina was suddenly interested. Could there be more people out there like her and her friends? How did he die, Jeff I mean?" she asked already knowing the answer.
"A local gang shot him, no charges were pressed obviously. They were angry because he was snooping around their alley." her mother sad sadly.
And I was just there, thought Rina.Of couse no one could bring the gangs to justice, crime ruled the streets.
Her mother suddenly glanced at a cut on Rina's shoulder. "What happened to you!" she cried, rushing over.
"Oh nothing I fell down some stairs on my way home, it's just a scratch," she lied. It actually hurt very badly, but she wrapped it up as quickly as she could.
"That doesn't look like a scratch to me, it looks like someone pulled your skin right off!" Her mother said suspiciously.
"I'm fine mom, just leave me alone," said Rina, stomping out of the room. Rina glanced back.
Her mother sat down at the table with her head in her hands and let out a tired sigh.
Rina felt pity for her but shook it off quickly.
She wouldn't understand anyway, She told herself.
Rina was very lucky to still have both parents and she knew that.
Pennet only had his father after loosing his mother to one of the missle attacks, Ne'car lost his parents early on and had
grown up with his older brother Ben.
Ben was also part of the underground rebellion.
Trisella was an orphan, she lived as a street prostitute, a very tough one that is. She gave the men what they wanted and got food in return. It was just the way it had to be she always said. Trisella refused charity, she was very proud.
Rina tiredly climbed the ladder to get to her loft room, thrust herself onto her bed and instantly regretted not being able to sleep that night. Her blue eyes felt heavy and her body was weak.
But, she had to get ready for the day, they needed to deliver the tape to Pennet's father as quickly as possible.
She only had three pairs of clothes so she grabbed the one that she hadn't worn recently and set to work on her mess of light brown hair.
Her jeans were ripped, her t-shirt had blood on it, and her eyes had bags under them. Besides that she thought she had freshened up nicely.
She headed down the stairs to grab whatever food she could find
Her father sat at the table with a shipping form to thier store in one hand and a cracked coffee mug in the other.
Rina sighed and poked her head into the cabinate
She grabbed what looked like a half good apple and headed out the door. "Bye mom, Bye Dad!" she called. Her dad gave her a smile, he always tried to be cheerful for her.
"Where are you going now hun?" Her mom called from their tiny living room.
"I have to make a delivery be back soon!" Rina called and then shut the door quickly.
At the old bank Rina sat down and tried to catch a quick nap but she kept thinking about the night before.
Pennet showed up looking even more exhausted than Rina.
His Usually bright blue eyes were a stormy gray and his clothes were the same ones he had worn before.
"Hey," said Rina.
"Hey," mumbled Pennet.
"Did you get caught?" Asked Rina.
"No, my Dad was out at some meeting or something," He replied.
Trisella and Ne'car walked up to them from out of the haze that covered the city.
Ne'car looked like he hadn't slept for days and was ready to pounce, and Trisella had on some skimpy looking outfit obviously supplied by her sick employers. She still was the best looking one out of all of them though.
They began walking to the train station where the underground meetings took place. They needed to find Pennet's father and according to him, he hadn't come home the night before.
They passed by many of the old and crumpling buildings of thier once large and thriving city. A haze covered the city making things seem bleak and dreary even though the sun was up.
It litterally looked like a ghost town. There were a few stragglers here and there looking just as tired as they were. There was no green and almost all the buildings had some sor of damage. Everything looked as if it was covered with a thick layer of dust.
When they reached the train station they were greeted with a blaze of hot orange flames.
"DAD!?!?!" shouted Pennet as he rushed towards the firery building.
The group rushed after him, they all split up to try and fine survivors.
Rina was taking one final look around when she saw an arm sticking out from under a pile of crumbled burning wood.
"I need a little help over here!" she called and ran to pull the person out.
No one came to help her, so she set to work on pushing the wood away from the body. It was tedious, but she finally pulled it away from the burning debris.
She gasped when she saw who it was.
Pennet's father coughed and blood spurted out of his mouth, he was still alive. His body was twisted in painful looking ways.
"Help! Pennet get over here!" cried Rina desperately. "He's still alive!"
Pennet's father turned his head towards her and weakly said, "Don't waste your breath, I'm not going to make it. Just listen, I need you tell Pennet something."
Rina nodded her head, she felt helpless. Tears were already pouring from her eyes,she had known this man all her life.
"I need you to tell him that it's up to him to finish what I've begun, it's up to all of you. You're the last hope we have." He gasped an coughed weakly and reached for Rina's hand."Tell him I'm proud of him, that he should never give up, and
it's...it's time." He barely made out the last few words. He coughed one last time and closed his eyes.
Rina sobbed as she pulled her hand away and closed his fists.She pulled his body away from the burning building.
Pennet jogged up to meet her. “What are you doing?” he asked wiping ashes away from his sweaty forehead.
Rina blinked back tears. She wasn’t used to feeling emotion from death. She had been around death most of her life but
watching someone so close to her die right in front of her was almost too much to bear.
“He was still alive,” she said quietly. ”I was tried to save him.”
Pennet stared at his dead father's face in shock. Tears shimmered in his eyes but he blinked them away.
He sunk down next to his father's corpse."Did...did he say anything?" He whispered
Rina looked around at the fire blazing around them with a feeling of despair. ”He told me that it's up to you, to all of us to finish what he started, that he's proud of you. And that it's, time..."
Pennet closed his eyes and a tear dripped off his cheek and onto his father's face. He lifted his father's head up onto his chest.
Rina looked down at Pennet and his father together, his father looked so peaceful despite the blood trickling from out of his mouth.
After awhile Pennet got up and gave her a weak smile, She put an arm around his trembling shoulders and together they walked back to the rest of the group.
The train station collapsed behind them and Rina squeezed her eyes shut.
Pennet looked back at his father's final resting place. "I won't let you down," he whispered.
I like the story. And I can't wait for more. I do think you improved! Congrats! Can't wait for more...
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