Chapter 1: The Tunnel

First few months down in the tunnel.

My story starts when I was 16 and my life was just fine until something just had to ruin it. It was just me Rron, my little sister, my cat, and my mother. It was just another typical day and I was going to school and I didn’t have very many friends I believe it was only three but I honestly don’t remember.

When I got there I was listening to the news with my portable radio, and I heard something that would make my life even more miserable. “Take cover! There has been a major bombing that has been detonating in the area, this is not a test, get to safety!” said the broadcaster.

“What the hell are we going to do?” said Nedack. Nedack is one of my friends and he had a greenish hair color, he was a little younger than me, he had glasses like me, and usually wears grey, and he’s quite a happy person and always has a smile on his face but this time it wasn’t even close to a smile it was just fear.

“I don’t know let’s just run for it I guess.” I said. Me and Nedack tried to find our two other friends but we couldn’t find them but we just assumed they haven’t arrived to school yet. We tried running out of there not warning anyone else because we were always made fun of, shown no respect and most people didn’t even know we existed so they could just all die we wouldn’t really of cared, at all.

So we all most made it out until the school counselor stopped us asking what we were doing. “A nuclear bomb exploded! We need to get out of here now!” I said trying to hurry. “I’ve heard that one before, now go back to the waiting area and wait for your classes to start.” He said in a stern way.

Then of course the school started falling apart and we had to evacuate. As soon as we got out the air was awful it was hard to breathe in.

 We saw some construction workers at a tunnel telling us to get in and so me and Nedack jumped in hoping we would be safe.

When we got down there it was like a giant underground tunnel system neither me or Nedack knew this existed.

“So what now?” said Nedack trying to figure all of this out. “I don’t know, we have no food, water, family, just each other, so I don’t know what we can do.” I said very concerned. “I hear something, be quite.” He said with hope in his eyes.

“Hey you kids get over here with the rest of the group!” a construction worker said in an annoyed voice. There was a lot of people and there was even some kids from our school and people who lived in town, but there were some unfamiliar faces too.

“Father!” I heard Nedack shout cheerfully. They started hugging each other and talking which I couldn’t tell what they were saying with all of the commotion that was going on.

I tried looking for anyone in my family, I had no luck I couldn’t find my sister nor my mother and I wasn’t even going to try to look for my cat.

I tried looking for my other friends but no luck. I asked the construction worker where are the others and he just told me that they are either up on the surface or in another pack.

“What do you mean by pack?” I asked. “It’s just another group of people in the safety tunnel.” He said. “Do you think I’ll find my friends or family?” I asked hoping he’ll say yes. “I don’t know kid, just leave me alone I have to keep track of all the people in my pack, so just screw off.” He said in an annoyed voice.

I was furious with the way he treated me but I could understand that he’s under stress so I just said thanks and met up with Nedack.

“Any luck finding your family?” asked Nedack. “Nope, I even tried to look for Lesse and Bege and no luck.” I said in a depressed voice.

Lesse had pink hair, he always looked depressed, he had a semi-beard, and he was one month younger than me. Bege was always saying ridiculous things and he was only a few days younger than me, he had a very light brown color of hair, and he always smelled like cats.

“You could always stay with us until you find your family.” Offered Nedack’s Father. “I guess I don’t really have any other choice.” I said. “Just look on the bright side were still together!” said Nedack cheerfully. “Yeah I guess you could say that.” I said.

Me and Nedack went around just looking around our area of the pack, we didn’t find much just the tunnel walls.

“What are we going to do for food?!” some guy started to yell out. “We should be getting food for all of you soon, so please just wait.” Said the construction worker.

I wondered what time it was so I looked at my watch and I saw something very strange, the hands were going around over and over again insanely fast.

“Nedack get over here and look at this!” I said. “What is it Rron?” said Nedack questionably. “Look at my watch!” I said. “Holy hell what is going on with your watch!.” Said Nedack very surprised. I took off my watch and threw it across the tunnel and I saw scolded by one of the construction workers since we could of used the parts.

“Want to know what I just remembered?” said Nedack. “What?” “Look on our backs.” I looked at my back and I remembered that we had our backpacks still on. I started searching through mine and all I saw was my lunch, drawings, math homework which wasn’t even assigned, and my books.

“What do you have in yours Nedack?” I said curiously. “Two lunches, history books, and my cellular phone.” Said Nedack.

“Don’t you have Bege’s number on there?” I asked. “Yeah, well let’s just hope he answers.” Said Nedack.

The phone was ringing and Bege picked up. “Where are you Bege?!” ask Nedack being way too loud.

While I waiting for their phone conversation to end I ate one of the pieces of candy that my mom put in my lunch. I had tears in my eyes while I was eating it.

“Bege is still on the surface.” Said Nedack in a concerned voice. “Well bloody hell, is he alright?” I asked. “Right now he’s in his basement with his grandma, so I don’t know if they’ll make it, we’ll just have to hope him and his grandma will be alright.” Said Nedack in a lower tone.

“How about we try calling Lese now.” I asked. Nedack started dialing the number and handed me the phone.

“I think It’ll be better if you talk to him.” Insisted Nedack. “Ok, thanks.” I said.  It was ringing and then no one picked up.

“Great just what we need no answer from him.” I said being a little worried. “I bet he’s fine he just probably has his phone turned off.” Said Nedack trying to cheer me up.

“You only have happy thoughts, don’t you?” I asked being slightly rude. “Yep!” said Nedack jokingly.

“So what are we going to do down here, we can’t just spend the rest of our life’s down here.” I said trying to figure out what to do. “I don’t know yet, so we’ll just have to wait.” He said with a not so happy look on his face.

Days went by without a trace of my family, and everyday felt the same, and eventually days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months.

Month number 7 of the underground tunnel. “I can’t take this anymore I want to go back to the surface!” I said.

“We all do Rron, just get over it.” Said Nedack. “Nothing has happened these past months! We need to do something I don’t care what we do we just need to do it.” I said. “Calm down, just calm down.” Said Nedack trying to calm me down.

I had it with this tunnel so I started going up towards one of the construction workers and demanded that we migrate further into the tunnel.

Well I got what I asked for because I did migrate down the tunnel because that construction worker kicked me across the tunnel.

“Rron! Are you ok!?” asked Nedack making sure I was ok. “Yeah I think so.” I said trying to stand up. I fell back down, I felt like the world was spinning. “Rron you bleeding!” I passed out after he said that. I think he was calling for me but I don’t know all I heard was just distant voices.

When I finally woke up Nedack had a smile on his face. “Rron your finally awake!” said Nedack cheerfully. “What happened?” I asked not knowing what was going on.

“You’ve been in a coma for about two weeks me and my dad have been insanely worried!” “They almost even put you down but I refused.” Said Nedack relieved that I was ok.

“Thanks, I don’t know what I would of down here without you.” I said. So what has happened in these last two weeks?” I asked. “The construction workers actually considered your idea of moving in more into the tunnel since it started collapsing where we were.” Said Nedack.

I went to the construction worker to thank him. “Hey kid we didn’t do It because you said we should we did it because we had to, and like we would actually take advice from a kid like you!” said the construction worker trying not to laugh.

This made me furious and I almost swung at him but thankfully Nedack stopped me.

“Hey don’t cause another commotion with these guys again, it’s not worth it.” Said Nedack.

We eventually sat down on our favorite rock and were waiting for the food kart to come to our pack, and the weird thing is that we don’t even know where all of this food is coming from.

“Where do you suppose all of this food is coming from?” ask Nedack. “I don’t know, but if I would have to guess I would have to say that they had food down here way before this happened knowing this would happen so they were ready for it.” I said. “It would be funny if you were right, but maybe you are how would I know?” said Nedack.