District A-1

Chapter 1 - Part 1

Jackson Smith

     I woke up to a bright light in my face. "Hailey what do you want?" I asked. My eyes opened and my little sister moved her hand away from my face making the light go away. "Mother and father want us to get up, training starts in an hour," stated Hailey. She then left my room leaving me alone to get dressed for the day. We have a week of training left before we get on a ship and head for A-1. No one knows anything about this district. The army men and scientist who were sent to investigate A-1 went missing 3 hours after arrival, leaving us with no information to rely on.

     "Jack!" screamed my mother. I snapped out of my trans. "Coming!" I screamed back. My feet ran for me as I flew down the stairs. The smell of bacon hit my nose, a small smile grew on my face. "Father what's on the itinerary?" I asked. "A twenty minute jog after that we have to meet up with Mr. Gooddens for a training session." father answered. I nodded and sat in my seat, I began to eat my breakfast. "Mother, why aren't you and father coming with us?" asked Hailey. Mother and father looked at each other for what seemed to be a while before our father nodded. "Our time to be heroes is over. We don't have the same strength as we did when we were younger. When we went that thing....hurt us very bad. It drained us of half of our powers, we're still working to get that loss of power back. If we go, we wouldn't be coming back with you guys," explained mother, her voice got softer as she spoke. Hailey looked at me, I looked back at her. When I looked into her green and hazel eyes and I saw nothing but determination. I realized that I couldn't take this so lightly anymore. Hailey and I would have to put our all in when we're fighting what ever it is we need to destroy. 

     A punch to the jaw and a kick to the ribs. I blocked the next hit and flipped my little sister over on her back, her dark brown hair just barely touched my face. She stood back up in defense mode and aimed to kick me in my shin. She successfully did so, her next target was my chest. I grabbed her leg but before I could do anything a bright light flashed in my eyes. My arm went up and I fell backwards, blinded by the light.  

     Mr. Gooddens blew his whistle, I heard his footsteps walk over to us. "Didn't I say we wouldn't be using powers in this dispute?" Mr. Gooddens questioned. I stood up rubbing my eyes, I tried to open them to look at what was happening but my vision was blurred. "Yes sir," replied Hailey quietly. "So then why did you use them!?" exclaimed Mr. Gooddens. Mr vision slowly came back to me and I saw Hailey step back a bit. "I'm sorry s-sir," answered Hailey. "Hailey! We don't have time for sorries! You are travelling to A-1 in six days and I need to follow every single order I give you! Do you understand?" asked Mr. Gooddens. "Understood sir," stated Hailey. "Good, again," commanded Mr. Gooddens. He turned around and sat back down to watch us. I looked at Hailey with sympathy in my eyes and got back into battle stance. 

     The sun started to set. Hailey and I were sat on the roof outside my window watching it go down, like we always did. I closed my eyes and focused on Hailey and what was going on in her mind. "What if we die? Mom and dad barely made it out alive and now they want us to go. We're half as young as they were when they went. There's no way we're gonna make it out alive. How come they're sending us? Why can't someone else go?" I looked over at Hailey. She looked scared. "Hailey stop thinking that way. We'll be ok and we will make it out alive. I promise." I told her. She looked at me. "I told you to stop using that on me," replied Hailey with a stern tone and looked away from me. We sat in more silence. "Are you afraid?" asked Hailey softly. I focused my vision back on her and shook my head. "Not of what we'll find...but of how powerful it is." I told her. Hailey looked at me and we stayed like this for a minute, she stared into my dark brown eyes. I broke away from her staring and focused back on the sunset. 

     "We won't be able to do this on A-1," stated Hailey. I ran my fingers through my hair and exhaled. "Well, we better soak it in while we still can," I told her. We sat in silence for the remainder of the time the sun set. Once it finally did Hailey got up and went into the house. "Goodnight Hails," I said to her. She looked back at me then climbed into the window, leaving my room. I watched walk through my room and slam my door shut. I sighed and laid down slowly looking up at the stars. 

     "Rebecca we shouldn't be sending them to A-1 alone," said my father in a low voice, "What's done is done. They have to go, we don't have any other choice," replied my mother. "Let the government deal with it! I don't want to send my only kids somewhere we almost died going!" screamed my father quietly, probably trying not to wake up my sister and I. "Alex we've discussed this already no one else can go there and make it back alive. You have to have faith in them," answered my mother. My father sighed. "I do, I'm just nervous," repiled my father. "I know. I understand," said my mother. I closed my eyes slowly and drifted off to sleep.