The Crimson Raider

Chapter 1: The Trials

A voice came in through the Handheld Transceiver (HT), "We are set, Colonel Marsh, we can finally destroy the resistance base but, they might send a counter attack if any survive, so please make sure to be ready for what could happen."

"Okay let's start the bombing. Don't worry, I'll be ready if they ever try to retaliate." Jason responded The HT buzzed in the silence before it was switched off.

Time skip - one month

Jack had just turned fifteen years and made his way inside the army headquarters to enlist. He wanted to surprise his dad when he returned from work.

When it happened...the destruction, the desolation, the apocalypse. Bombs were blowing up all around Jack, one exploded in front of him the heat melting his insides and the force pushing him into a wall, the impact of hitting the wall made his insides slosh around. He thought he was going to die he told himself "This is the end, I'm going to die here!" but, he never did.

Jack somehow managed to survive the attack, he didn't know how he survived or how lucky he was for not being hit by one of the bombs, but one thing was certain, the military base was absolutely destroyed. Jack went on to see how bad the situation was, "I need to know what's going on! I need to find my family!" He traveled down the road to his house, the path absolutely decimated. He knew something was wrong, when he got to his house his heart sank. It was in pieces and what he found inside is too gruesome to speak of. What he saw should never be seen, what happened to his family should never, ever happen to anyone. Jack moved away from this scene to try to regain balance and forget what he saw, the horrors, the terrors of what had befallen his town. He moved to the Central City to take military training and hopefully avenge his fallen friends and family.

Jack traveled from his town on his dads old motorcycle which had surprisingly survived the bombs, he traveled for a week going at full speed and finally made it to the Central City, he searched around for a camp to train him and finally found one, The Raiders, they were known to be the best training camp, all the successful trainees that come from them are known as the best, but for the ones who fail never get seen again. Jack wanted to be the best of the best so he joined knowing that he may die, but still not giving up. He had to train for three years to be a successful trainee, in those three years he went through trials of extreme pain and exhaustion. At the start the training was tough, to start he had six months of basic activities to be at the level of all the other recruits, who had proper military training. The basic training was as expected; crawling under barbed wire, doing obstacle courses, testing his aim at the shooting range and learning how guns work. Jack had to compete with forty-nine other contenders including him meant there were fifty recruits in total. No-one died during the six months of basic training, but thirty died in the second part of training, The Application, in this trial trainees had to use the skills they learned to survive in the wastelands for a year.

The trainees were given a semiautomatic rifle with about thirty bullets, and a small survival kit, the rest was up to the trainees. They were all dropped into different sections fifty kilometres apart at dusk, he landed down near some large cracks and caves which he could use as cover, he slipped into one of the cracks to check it out, it had a smooth slab of rock which he could sleep on for the night. In the morning Jack explored the surrounding area and found absolutely nothing but sand and rocks, so he thought that he was the unluckiest person out of all the trainees. He told himself "My home got bombed, my family are all dead, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with little food and water and now I'm going to die, can I be anymore unlucky." Annoyed by his situation Jack returned to his crack filled with despair, but then he wondered where the cracks went and followed them through to the end. What he found was just terrible, bones of other failed trainees, only years old. He decided to check their bodies to see what they had, all he found was dust, until he came to the last body which had a knife in a holster, still sharp, it looked as if it was new, he took the knife so that he didn't have to waste ammo.