Future Defenders - Book 1 - Rise of the Murderers

Chapter 1 - Perfect Life

Beep beep beep beep

Riley turned over to look at his digital clock.

6:30am, still an hour and a half before the bus arrives.

He leaned over and presses the snooze button on the clock and sat in his bed. The silence began to fill the room. It was something he had grown used to since the last time he was with his family. The noise coming from the kitchen and his cat making a racket, wanting to go outside.

Out of everyone on the island, Riley was one of the few students who took it the hardest when they found out they couldn't go home. Eventually, just like everyone else, he adapted to his new life and found a new family amongst his friends.

After a minute of staring at the blank wall, he finally got out of bed, put on his dressing gown and slippers and left his room to have breakfast. Riley's house was a simple one. It had all the necessities, a kitchen, a dining room, a lounge room, the bathroom, the laundry room and his room, plus a guest room. Although he lived alone, most of his friends lived in close proximity so that cancelled that out.

He went into the the kitchen and poured a bowl of cereal and plopped himself on the couch and turned on the TV to watch the early morning news ran by robots. Riley wasn't a massive fan of the robots, but he wasn't like the people who had theories that they would try to overthrow the humans, not that they stood a chance anyways since they had magic on their side. He made do with them anyways. Anyways, it was just the same old stories. The weather, more progress on the new shopping district, and the occasional pointless robbery. The sports report then came on, and Riley turned up the volume. He was a big fan of AFL and yearns for day he can watch it live again. With it being a Friday, there was a game on the previous night which Riley was unable to watch due to work. Melbourne managed to beat St Kilda by 33 points at the MCG, and it didn't look to be an exciting game, so he had no intentions to watch the replay.

After the news finished, Riley put his dishes in the dishwasher and returned to his room to get changed. He didn't need to bother packing his bag as he had did that the night before to save time. He put on his shirt, tie jumper, blazer, long pants and socks on, brushed, before grabbing his bag and headed outside to put his shoes in. Opening the door, he was greeted to a bit of snow. It wasn't unusual to get snow in Central Kennedy, but back when they were part of Westtropolis, it never snowed. However, their island was close enough to the Southern Ice Plains that is could snow here, but only a little.

Riley locked and looked at his watch. 7:02am. Little later than he wanted, but it would do. With his back on his back, he made his way down the road to the local cafe where Adam was waiting with coffee. Although they had a large friend group, Riley considered Adam as his closest and most trusted friend.

"Yo what's up"

"Nothing much, you?"

"I had the worst sleep last night, I swear there was a thunderstorm around"

"I didn't hear any thunder"

"Course you didn't, your half deaf"

This was true. Riley sometimes has bad hearing, especially when he sleeps, but he's able to live with it.

"You should probably slow down on that coffee, you don't want to be hyperactive and then crash during the day"

"I'm on my 2nd cup and besides, I've gotten through the day without being sleepy after 5 cups" Adam replied as he almost fell asleep. The two then spent the next 20 minutes debating about important topics like the sport, if there was homework and what to do in afternoon, before Adam realised the time.

"Shoot, the bus arrives in 4 minutes, better get going"

The two left the cafe and began to walk towards the bus stop, when Riley asked "Do you think we'll ever be able to go home?"