The 50

A New Beginning: Chapter 01

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The Sign: The 50

By: Max Lacelle and Noah Gorch

Sequel to The Sign: The Acumula Project

Book Two

                                                                      A New Beginning: Chapter 01

How could this happen. I look around searching for my family, chaos is happening in the city. " MOM! DAD!, DAMIEN!, I scream. I walk around more searching and searching but finding nothing. I run down the streets desperately trying to hang on to hope that somewhere my family is still alive. I look around me seeing dead or injured people. Just a few moments ago the capitol city of our country sent in hovercrafts over our town and bombed us with nuclear bombs. I got split up from my mother, father, and brother and I don't know if they survived the attack but not many people did. Our town has a population of 175,000 people, and the capitols idea was to burn our town to the ground and make sure there was no survivors. They did a lousy job seeing as less than 100 people survived the attack, hopefully my mom dad and brother were three of the 100 people still alive. Just then I feel a hard impact hit the earth as the ground started to shake I look up and saw another Bomb headed straight for me. The impact caused an explosion so strong it can destroy a row of houses leaving nothing but useless ruble that is meaningless. The explosion caused me to go flying and hit the ground at a hard impact everything went blank and I don't know what happened next....

I woke up not knowing my surroundings I sit up and my head starts spinning, I lay back down trying to focus. Just then the door to the room opens and a tall skinny man walks in. " Hello miss Blue" I hear the man say to me. I am wondering how this strange man I have never met before knows my name. ' W-who are you and how do you know my name?" I reply. The man takes a moment to reply but when he does it is not a response I was looking for. " I have been watching you your brother, and some others for the past 3 months" he says in a stern voice. " I used to work in the capitol and I remember them planning to attack your hometown" he continues. " I was supposed to be an attacker in the attack of your town, but me and a couple co-workers didn't agree with what the capitol wanted us to do so we rebelled and decided to save 50 children from the attack and give them shelter in the underground bunker which you are in right now". It's a lot to take in this man has been following me for three months it seemed creepy but I am glad he rescued me at the time that he did. "Oh I am deeply sorry I forgot to introduce myself" he says. I am Valdemar president of the bunker, and you are?" he asks. "My name is Amanda" I reply nervously, "is Damien alive? I ask. The man nods and I let out a sigh of relief. The man then hands me a black hoodie, black tee-shirt, black pants, black gloves and black shoes. I ask the man what the clothes are for, and he tells me "every one of the 50 teens get this outfit because it's a disguise to make sure the capitol doesn't find out you kids are alive" he says.

I get out of bed and look around I still feel dizzy from the medication and the concussion the landing gave me when I got blasted. I manage to pull on the clothes that I received from the president. Then at the corner of my eye I see four other beds in my room and wondered if I was going to have roommates. I then hear the sound of bells coming through a speaker, then a voice of a female came on saying "Good Morning Tributes it is the first day of being down here in the bunker you may all now leave your dorms and go to the café for some breakfast you all must be hungry, after breakfast you all will receive a schedule saying when your training class is and who your room mates are have a good day tributes". I hear another chime of bells and the voice is gone. I hear the sound of a door unlocking, so I run to the door and pull it open revealing a very hotel like hallway. I hear other doors opening and the sound of locks unlocking gets farther and farther away until I can no longer hear it. I see about 20 other tributes wearing the exact same clothes as me I start to feel a bit crowded but I manage to keep calm. I then hear the voice of a robot saying "please follow the light and go to the café" then a long line of lights come on and I know were going to follow them. I then hear a very familiar voice shouting my name. "AMANDA.... AMANDA...AMANDA BEHIND YOU" I turn to see Damien wearing all black running towards me I start running towards him feeling tears fill my eyes until my vision gets blurry I finally reach him and I feel his arms wrap around me. I can see some tears in his eyes, I feel a huge weight lifted from my shoulders when I embrace him. "Where is mom and dad? I ask "they have to be down here too right" I then see my very young looking brother's hazel eyes drop to the floor his emotion goes very blank and I can tell he has something to say. "Damien what's wrong where's mom and dad" I say. "They didn't make it" he said, "I saw them get blown up right before my eyes I am sorry Amanda I tried to save them but then I got knocked out and woke up in here" he explains. I feel like someone just hit me with a car and is backing up over my body, I feel tears of rage filling in my blue eyes. I hug him tighter telling him it's just us now and we need to protect each other at all costs. We walk together following the lights towards the café.

When we reach the café I look in seeing booths at every end of the room and bakers serving foods. Damien and I stand in line with trays waiting for our turn to get some food. When it's my turn I look at the food options and finally settle on a big chocolate croissant with a glass of orange juice. I then see an empty booth at the corner of the room, I walk over to the booth with Damien we sit in front of each other and start talking about random things just making small talk, just then these two boys walk over to our booth with trays of food asking if they can sit with us because everywhere else was full. I nod and one sits beside me the other beside Damien. One of the boys was medium size with Blonde hair, green eyes, some muscle, his name was Trevor. The other boy was very tall about 6 foot I would say chestnut hair, a lot of muscle, Blue eyes his name was Christopher. At the corner of the room I saw a girl with medium size red hair, hazel eyes searching the room for a spot to sit, I waved at her motioning her to come sit with us. She walked over and said that her name was Ember, we all started talking for about an hour.

I then heard another bell and voice saying "Hello Tributes I hope you all had a lovely breakfast now if you please procced down the hallway to the foyer where you will receive your schedule" Ember, Damien, Christopher, Trevor, and I proceeded down the hall to a big open room called the foyer, I walked up to a table with sheets of paper representing the schedules. I searched for one that said Amanda Blue on it I eventually found it I picked it up and read that I had training at 11:11to 3:30 every day, I kept reading until I got to the list of who my roommates would be I had four roommates I read their names Damien Blue, Trevor Grimsby, Christopher Grimsby and Ember Marshalls. I heard footsteps coming closer to us I turned around to see President Valdemar walking to us. "Hello you five I hope you are all happy with your training and roommate schedules, Amanda may I talk to you for a second" I followed the president to a quiet room and sat down on the couch next to him. "Amanda I have been working with another agency that has been helping the lives of innocent people" my good friend Dr. Orloff has informed me that he would like you and your brother to go to his office and take a Flashexronaton Test. "What is that mister president may I ask? I reply. "a Flashextronaton Test is just a test to see if your health is stable from the attack on your town not too long ago" I was allowed to leave after that and I walked back to the foyer to see my friends sitting down waiting for me. Valdemar then asks Damien to follow him to the room, and I sat down and waited.

We waited about 15 minutes before Damien finally came back out. I told him if Valdemar told him about Dr. Orloff and the Flashexronaton test, and he simply said yep that's it. We all headed back to our dorm and got settled in because today was a lazy day and we could do whatever we felt. There are five beds in the room all beside each other. Dinner finally Came around and we sat at the same table and ate while talking about our pasts. Trevor and Christopher both shared how the time when Trevor was 8 and Christopher was 6 Trevor tried to drown Christopher in the lake by their house. I shared the time that Damien and I were trying to bake a cake for our parent's anniversary and we caused a fire. And Ember shared the time she almost got hit by a car. I guess we all became best friends because we made a pledge that we will never keep secrets. We went to bed later that night and I have no regrets about being here.