Voices

Chapter 1: The Future and Past

I sat still and hoped I wouldn't cause attention to myself. I was hiding from the person who wanted to kill me, at least that's how I viewed it. I lost Avery. He was gone, and I didn't know how to find him. I could only hope he is dead, and didn't become one of those... Things.

"Go search for her around the dressing room of the mall!" a male voice shouted. I shuddered in fear because that is was my exact location. A scene from World War Z pops into my brain, and I recalled it quickly into my thoughts. "Movimiento es vida." Movement is life. I had to move if I wanted to survive.

Quickly I stood up, stretched a bit, and then changed my clothes. I put on a wig, and sunglasses. This was a dumb disguise, but it will have to do for now. I walked out of the dressing room and stared, unfeeling, at the desolated place. They would know it was me, unless I acted like them.

"She's not here!" I shouted in a deep voice than my average girl teen voice. A man peered around the corner. I held my breath as he examined me.

"Where did you come from?" he asked. "You weren't here before."

"Visiting from the C-Sector. Heard you need help finding someone... Or something."

"Nice disguise, but you're not good enough to fool me," he replied, pulling out a gun. It was a ray gun that stunned you long enough for them to do what they want to you. Like turn you into them.

"Well, you give me no choice then," I whispered, pulling off my disguise. My straight, long black hair falls away from the wig, and I pull out my own gun. It was an assault rifle. "Guess I'm gonna have to make some noise."

I quickly shot him, and he fell down dead. I heard shouts from other parts of the mall, and I sprung out into an old waiting area. They surround me like a predator capturing its pray. I swallowed hard, trying to breath. I didn't want this to happen.

"Listen girl," one of the men growled, "don't make this any harder for us." I searched around and looked for an exit. I keep looking and my heart clenches in pain. It's hard to focus, but I know who it is. Avery. He turned into one of them in the crowd.

"AVERY!" I screamed. "Oh god... Not you Avery. Anyone but you." His eyes held mine very coldly. He raised his gun and aimed.

"Its enlightening, this state," he whispered. "Trust me. I still love you." Then he shot at me, freezing me, and everything.

I knew it was over then.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. You probably picked up my story... And whispered to yourself, "what the hell is going on?" Sorry about that, but I had to hook you in. My life kind of turned to hell at that moment, but I'm going to start at the beginning. The first day the government started arresting people to turn them into war machines.

Not just war machines, though. They were the things they were assigned to be. They knew people would resist to a communist-like government. America was just too free. A lot of the world was, in fact. So, to change that, they started arresting you for every little thing you would do... Then would put a chip in your body, altering your memories, and letting you think a communist-like community was great. You would love the job you apparently had and all that junk.

I'm not into the government or politics. Well, I was younger when it happened, but I still wouldn't be if I grew up. All of it is just boring to me. Too much drama to deal with.

My mom was the first to notice the change in people. She noticed they changed a job profession to things that some of them really hated. She picked this up when she realized that it was after the arrest of her friends that they changed. So, she made sure she was extra careful to not do anything bad. She kept me "alive" until that day you were reading a few paragraphs ago.

When my mom noticed the communist-like system, I was five. As I got older, we lost more people, including my dad, to the cause. The people who noticed the change like us got into a little group we call, "Voices." It was just an easy name to remember, and not really having a significant meaning to it.

As I grew older, more people joined, and we had to go into hiding. Then, they decided to abandon New York City altogether... those things. We read on abandoned newspapers in the streets that New York City wasn't land that they needed. The rest of the people left confused by this were about ten, and we recruited them. And that was how I met Avery.

I was thirteen at that time. So was he. My mom came up to me in our hide out and said, "Meet the new kid." I looked around, and saw a boy standing in the middle of the room, running his hand through his hair, nervously.

"Do I have to?" I whispered, shyly. My mom patted me in the back, and I took that as a yes. I walked towards the middle of the room and he reached out his hand to me. I shook it.

"Hi," I said shyly. "I'm Cleo..." He smiled at me and replied, "Avery." It was an instant friendship. Avery had black hair, blue eyes, and was mixed. He was cute, but I wasn't interested in crushing or anything. I was too scared for anything like that. Too scared of how our lives changed so drastically.

Our lives were based off of training to fight. We learned how to use a gun, street fighting, martial arts, and my mom controlled the whole organization. We had food left over from grocery stores so we were fine. Everything seemed almost normal again... Until one day a mistake was made...

"They invaded and got Carl!" one of the guards of our place shouted. Immediately people were grabbing guns and other weapons. Avery came up to me and handed me a shotgun. My heart was pounding.

"Ready?" he asked me. I could tell he was scared too. We never killed anyone. We were still only thirteen at the time.

We walked slowly outside with other people in bulletproof vests.

"We have to try and get Carl," my mom whispered. "You guys got that? Good." But I wasn't careful. I got separated. And I was the first to get attacked.