Chapter 1 - In the beginning...

I had a pretty good youth. My parents, they loved me, and my little brother Cody. My parents named me Nicole… I grew up on the other side of the planet, a country called Buthainah, also known as “downundah” as most people refer to it, in the small city Kennice. Buthainah wasn’t a bad country to live. On the contrary, it was a beautiful place. Surely, it wasn’t the richest and biggest country on the planet, but everything was great. Growing up there was like a dream… Everywhere you looked, you saw the exotic jungles, huge waterfalls, pearl-white sand, clear ocean water, exotic wildlife, the hundreds of tiny islands, and all sorts of things that were a feast to your eyes. Every time you opened your eyes, it was like seeing everything again for the very first time…



As for me… Life couldn’t get any better. Although it was the same routine every day. Get up, go to college for 8 hours, then go back home, have a nice family dinner, then go to bed, and the whole process is repeating itself the next day… But in my spare time, like the weekends or holidays, I loved going out with my friends. Visiting a club, going to the beach, the movies, or everything else that involved friends. Also, I loved listening to music. My favourite is Drum and Bass, although my parents hated it.



Everything they ever proposed me to do was always rejected by me. You can say I was a spoiled, rich brat that always did the opposite of what my parents said, and they weren’t too happy with it. Most of the time, it got me in trouble and when I was 14, I got busted for stealing sunglasses… Whether all these actions were a cry for attention, I don’t know. But hey, you know what they say. You don’t live until you live life on the edge. And that’s exactly what I did. Always pushing myself to the edge to see what’ll happen. What will happen if I steal something? Or what will happen if I had tattoos? Or what if I take fighting lessons without my parents knowing it? Because I always had my parents to get me out of situations I couldn’t get out of myself… Every time something like that happened, my dad held a preach about taking responsibility and stuff. At some point, I didn’t even bother to listen because I know he was coming to get for me when I was in trouble… Don’t get me wrong though, I loved my parents, especially my mother… We did all sorts of stuff together, and the simple things were something that mattered to me most… Talking about boyfriends and all that crap…



We weren’t poor… My father owned a construction company before I was even born. It started small and over the years, it became bigger and bigger. He got richer and richer as demands from the other continent became more. There was a bloody war going on for the past decade, and ever since it ended, demands got higher. The whole planet needed to help those countries, seeing as the countries on the other continent were devastated. My dad always told us how lucky we were that we didn’t live there. But besides that, everything went great… Demands were high, money kept rolling in, and my dad got the idea of stock market investment. As the economics grew, even more money started to roll in… That was about 4 years ago, when I was 14…



But, with every rich man or woman, there’s always someone out there to take over business… At the height of my father’s success, an old co-founder of the company showed him papers that the company should be handed over to him. It was all about legal paperwork and all sorts of stuff. My father didn’t agree on that, seeing as he quit the job himself when the company was suffering from a lack of jobs. Everything resulted in a legal affaire, which eventually resulted that my father was forced to hand over the company to him. My father was devastated by that, seeing as he worked his whole life to build it up from the ground… And to make matters worse… Seeing as the stocks investment was a part of the company, he lost it all… We were forced to move out of our big house, sell almost everything we got to pay our debts, and leave everything behind… But that wasn’t the worst part for me…



My father changed a lot during that period… We now had a small house with only the necessary stuff… All the luxury we were used to was gone, and trying to make it on your own isn’t really easy for someone who is used that everyone else is doing for it you. It had its rough time, but we managed it. I still went to school, and Cody went to school as well… But, I still wasn’t used to the idea of living this sort of life… We only managed to last it out for a couple of months… Not because of all the things we lost, but by the effects and frustration…



Then one day, I came home late… As I opened the door of my house, I heard that my mom and dad were arguing loudly… As I walked through the hall, I noticed that picture frames were broken and the living room was a mess… Then Cody ran up to me in his pyjamas and told me they were arguing… And at that point, I saw my dad coming in the hall pissed off, went out the door and slammed it… I saw my mother crying on the couch, and I sat next to her… And tried to comfort her and to find out what it was all about… I never found out what actually happened that night… But dwelling in the past doesn’t make things right. Because you’re waiting for an explanation that will never come…



For the next couple of months, the situation didn’t change much… I can understand my dad was frustrated about everything that happened to him, but that doesn’t give him a reason to act it out on us. I started to feel depressed every time something like that happened and I tried to get in touch with my old friends… But they’re not there for me anymore… They all abandoned me when I needed them the most…



As time went by, the confrontations ended up violently… At some point, my mother had enough and they divorced, which had a great impact on me and my little brother… But what’s worse was that she didn’t take us along with her. She fracked off and never came back… We didn’t know where she was or how we could get in contact with her… She just left us… And for that, I’ll never forgive her… I wasn’t her daughter anymore…



Now that my mother wasn’t around anymore, my dad took his frustrations out on us… I was able to defend myself, but Cody couldn’t… Almost every day we had big arguments and I had no one to go to except my little brother… My dad always told us how sorry he was after it was over, which made him cry… He never showed it to us, but I could hear him at night… I knew he had regrets, but that doesn’t mean it never happened…



One day, I arrived in an empty house… Or so I thought… I heard something from upstairs and once I got there, I could hear Cody sobbing… I opened the door to his room, and there he was, on the floor, crying… As I got to him and asked what happened, he didn’t respond. I tried picking him up and he yelled all of a sudden not to pick him. It took a lot of time and patience to persuade him to talk about what happened to him. And at some point, he lifts up his head and looked at me, and I could see he had a black eye… At that point, I decided we had to go… Because, we couldn’t live on like that anymore…



After I took care of Cody, I went to the living room. I searched the place for money and grabbed everything I could. It was actually a lot of money and I placed it inside my pockets… I left a note for my dad, and after that, I took Cody’s hand and went outside the door… I locked it, and we both walked away without ever looking back… I remember Cody’s face when he looked at me. He got a weak smile on his face and I smiled back… I never really had a good relationship with my little brother, only because he was 4 years younger then me. He can get pretty annoying, but I think he thought about me the same way. But that all didn’t mattered now though. He knew I cared for him by walking away together...



So the first thing we did was going to the train station… We bought two tickets to Reventon, which was located near the sea. They looked at us rather baffled when we said we wanted two second class tickets to Reventon, seeing as it’s a journey of about two days. I managed to talk ourselves out of it and once we boarded the train and found our seats, Cody and I couldn’t sigh in relief… At that point, I realized my brother was a person too… That he had needs, and dreams and all sort of stuff. Before this all happened, I didn’t even knew his age… We talked a lot during the journey to Reventon, and he opened himself up to me… To me, it felt like living on the edge again, with no care in the world. Only my little brother and I and whatever what might be ahead of us…



But I never realized that there might be trouble ahead of us, which, inevitably happened. Once we reached Reventon, we had no idea what to do. We stayed in a humble hotel for a few days and again, talked myself out of it when they asked how we were gonna pay for it… With the money we had left, we bought cloths, and all sort of stuff. Within 2 days, all the money was gone which presented another problem… At some point, our stay in the hotel ended and we had to get out…



That night, we stayed out on the streets… At that same moment, I learned a valuable lesson. Never trust anyone… A group of hedgehogs, about the same age as us approached us. Five of them, two girls and three guys… They offered us food and shelter and I accepted it with my stupid naïve face. At first, they seem very friendly, but Cody didn’t trust it. I always said he shouldn’t worry about it, but he did anyway for a good reason…. We stayed there for a couple of days and they gained our trust… And soon it was time to return a favour to them…



One night, the oldest of the bunch approached me. I never got their names by the way, but that doesn’t matter. He asked me if I was “interested” in making some money, and when he said that, I was shocked. He saw the look on my face and told me he didn’t mean it that way. At one point, I was very relieved, but also very curious with what he meant… And he said he wanted me to steal things… Just about anything, as long as it’s worth money… And the worst part is, he wanted Cody to steal things as well… I said I didn’t want that, and as soon as I said that, he pushed me against the wall, holding a knife to my throat. He said we both took advantage of there “hospitality” and that we both needed to return a favour to them… As soon as the others came, one of them got hold of my arms and pinned me down while the other pulled down my pants… Then they locked the door…



Something happened to me ever since that. Every time someone got close to me, I reacted violently. It didn’t take long before we got kicked back on the streets again, and I tried not showing it to Cody. He acted like he didn’t know anything but I knew all too well that he realized something happened. He noticed I changed, and that that we needed to come up with something to get out this forsaken place…



Now Cody… See, he doesn’t look very bright, but he’s actually very clever… At some point, he pointed to my necklace and he smiled… I didn’t get him at first, but after he explained it all, I knew this had to succeed… A little bit of extra cash always comes in handy…



So the next day, Cody explained it all again while we were out on the streets. I sold my necklace at a pawnshop and didn’t get much for it. But that doesn’t matter. We had bigger plans… Before we went back to those guys, Cody revealed the plan one more time and then we went back…



Now, the oldest of the bunch wasn’t too happy with the money that we brought in… He saves it somewhere… But all we needed to know is where he keeps the rest of it…



The next day, as evening fell and everyone was outside doing there “stuff”, Cody and I got “home” early. Cody stood guard as I quickly grabbed a lot of money and placed it in my pockets. Cody tapped on the door, which was the signal that we had to leave. So we both slipped through the backdoor to the street and walked normal. We were pretty nervous and as we turned a corner, I was suddenly pulled in an ally, and was pushed against a wall. It was the same guy again, but this time, I punched him hard in the face and he fell back. That was actually the first time I punched someone… Then all of a sudden, I became so pissed off that I kept beating his face. At some point, Cody held me back and we both ran as fast and far as we could…



We searched around and eventually reached the ferry. It takes you to the peninsula about 50 kilometres away from this island. The peninsula still formed the gateway to Buthainah, with the airport and all major transport routes. I actually paid attention during social studies while I was in college… We were just in time to catch the last ferry…



Once we got to the peninsula, we had, again, nowhere to go. That night, we slept at the docks and by dawn, we saw a container ship getting ready. I looked at Cody and he smiled, then we decided to hitch a ride with the ship as stowaways… We looked around and made sure no one saw us, and then we climbed the thick rope that was anchored at the bay… Looking back now, it was a dangerous thing to do. Because if you fell, you would be dead for sure... You’d get crushed between the bow of the ship and the concrete walls. But, we both made it and waited in a lifeboat with a plastic sheet covering us… Few hours later, the ship set off, to wherever the hell it was going…



That same night, one of the sailors, walked around on deck. I heard he was lighting up a cigarette and that he walked around. But for some reason, the lifeboat we were in caught his attention. He took a peek in the boat and discovered us. At that same moment, he looked up and was about to warn the others, but I grabbed his hand and placed paper money in his hand. He then looked at us again and I told him that if he could arrange food and water for us, he gets more…



It went good for a few days. It was long and boring, and every time the sailor came along at night, we talked for a little while. He even managed to bring us some blankets and a few books… But one night, he didn’t come…



That night was a stormy, rainy night… Cody and I got soaked from all the waves that were hitting the ship and we heard a lot of people yell… At some point, I looked outside and all I could see was the dark, rainy night sky… And at that point, I realized the ship was capsizing… The lifeboat started to take water, and the lifeboat had to let go, otherwise, we were being pulled under water. We pushed and pulled the ropes on the pulleys, but the boat didn’t give in. So we both jumped in the water and clenched on a piece of wood that floated around… As the hours passed by, the storm finally calmed down and I could see the sun coming up… And with it, I saw a few dead bodies floating around, among them, the sailor who took care of us… Then Cody looked at me and I realized we were thinking the same thing… What the hell are we doing out here…? The ship started to sink slowly, and we could see in the distance the other lifeboats of the crew, but we floated away in the other direction…



After hours of floating around on sea, we could see in the distance land. I didn’t know where the hell we were and we were both really tired… The sun went down and it turned night… The night was freezing cold as we still drifted slowly towards land… I looked at Cody and I didn’t know how he did that. Falling asleep just like that… By the time the sun came up again, I couldn’t feel my legs. Then I tried moving up a little to get my legs out of the water.



One whole day passed by… Two days passed by… Each day, we saw land getting closer and closer, which gave us strength not to give up. It took about 4 days to reach it…



On the night of day 4, I woke up on a beach… I didn’t see Cody anywhere… I tried looking for him by crawling forward… Every move hurts but I managed to get up. I took my shoes off first and every bone in my body was shivering. I tried getting up and stumbled towards a forest not far from the beach… And at some point, I couldn’t go on… I collapsed in the middle of a forest, not knowing where I am…



Then I felt like I was moving in a swaying motion… I felt something warm on my back… I opened my eyes slowly and saw I was moving in a swaying motion… I felt the warm sun on my back and I looked down. I saw two dark blue legs with cyan stripes below me walking and that warm thing I felt on my back was an arm. It took me a while to realize I was being carried. I turned my head and saw this dark blue hedgehog, with cyan quills in a pattern on his spines. At that point, he turned his head and faced me… I saw a huge scar across his right eye, and the way he looked at me made me freak out…



I jumped out of his grip and stood before him… I kept staring at him while I prepared myself for a fight… Then I noticed he carried weapons and a vest that said RRTS… A little name tag to the right of it said “Reaper”…



???: Good morning to you too…

RRTS was something that I heard of before… Especially a lot on the news during the war…



???: You know, the war might be over, but it’s still not safe going through the forest all by your self. You’re soaking wet. There’s a village a couple of miles east.

Nicole: Where’s my brother…?

???: We took him in last night. We found him wondering around the forest all alone while we patrolled the forest. He told me that you were around here somewhere. Come on, let’s go.

I couldn’t say if I could trust this guy. With every word he said, he sounded so cold… Last time I trusted a stranger, it didn’t go too well… But, seeing as his vest said RRTS and he carried the weapons, I thought I was best to obey him. But he didn’t look that old though…



I tried walking but I was too tired to carry on. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder while his hand was holding me to my back… As the swaying motion came back again from the way he walked, I fell asleep…



As I woke up, I noticed it was evening and found myself in a warm bed… I looked around the room and lots of stuff was on a shelf. Like, a big bullet, some photographs, and all sorts of stuff. I took a closer look on the bullet and it had something carved in it. It felt rather heavy once I held it in my hand…



Nicole: “FUBAR”…
???: Yeah, it sure was… It’s a .50 calibre anti-material round. Could blast through anything…


I turned around and saw him standing in the doorway with a plate of food… The same hedgehog that carried me… He handed the plate to me and I sat down and started eating.



Blain: Eat up.
Nicole: Thanks…
???: Don’t mention it…


Nicole: … You told me the forest still isn’t safe to wonder around didn’t you…?
???: Yeah… The war is over for just a few weeks…
Nicole: Few weeks…?
???: Yup.
Nicole: But the media-
???: Don’t believe everything the media tells you. It’s over for a few weeks, but there are still some groups left pillaging and kill to get there hands on whatever they want. That’s why there sending reinforcements to hunt those groups down until every last one of ‘em is dead or captured. So don’t go out on your own.

Nicole: Ok… Got it…

Then it stayed silent for a while… I still gotta let it all sink in. All the stuff that happened in two months and now hearing the war is just over for a few weeks… And then I realized something…



Nicole: Wait, hold on… Did you say war…?
???: Yeah… Why?

Then I realized I’m on the other continent… At that point, I dropped my plate and stared in blank space with wide eyes… And something else fell too. I looked down and saw the bullet on the ground…



???: Hey, you ok?
Nicole: How the hell did I end up here…?
???: Only you can tell me. Right now, you got shelter and food. So stay here for a couple of weeks and then we’ll find out how to get you home.

Somehow, he gave me the chills every time he opened his mouth and said something… He sounds so cold, like there is no emotion in his voice…



Nicole: Thanks…
Blain: I’m Blain…
Nicole: I-I’m Nicole…


He kept staring at me with a rather puzzled look.



Nicole: … Something wrong?
Blain: No, it’s just that…
Nicole: What…?
Blain: Well… What are you?
Nicole: Excuse me?
Blain: I mean what species… I never saw anyone with a huge tail like that…
Nicole: … You never saw a kangaroo…?
Blain: … No not really no. Their not common over here…
Nicole: Well I never saw anyone with so many stripes…

He reached out his hand to help me get up, so I got up. I picked up the bullet that I dropped…



Nicole: Why are you keeping this?
Blain: It reminds me of how I got here in the first place, a tribute to my fallen team mates, and why I never should go back to Robotropolis.

Nicole: So… What does it mean?
Blain: fracked up beyond all recognition. That about sums up my past.

Then I remember he wore a vest that said RRTS… For some reason, I got a very strange feeling… I heard a lot about them… They say that they caused bloodbaths, killing innocent people and did tons of things that violated civil rights…


Nicole: RRTS…?
Blain: Yeah, I’m an ex-RRTS member…

I knew it… He was part of it… I let him talk about it and the more I listened, the more I disliked him. He talked about it like it was nothing. He killed innocent people during the war… Like it was nothing! How the hell could he live with himself?! It sends chills down my spine as he stared at me… And at some point, I thanked him for the food and walked out of his house…

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