Chapter 2

Chapter of the Semantic Blends: A Chain Novel, written be Writers Cafe user Sunflower 20.

CHAPTER TWO

Written by Sunflower 20 (http://www.writerscafe.org/sunflower%2020)
Written for Semantic Blends: A Chain Novel Experiment

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“Wake up, boy!” that same raspy voice filled the air. But it was distant, like Josh was hearing it from under water. Josh felt a sharp pain in his ribs. Then, slowly, carefully, his eyes opened and the scene laid out before him was something that he never, ever expected to happen. Especially not to him, again.

He was in a brightly lit room, like a hospital, but the walls, floor and ceiling was covered in shiny white tiles, and it was completely bare of furniture, except for a chair occupied by a large man with bulging muscles holding a thick file. The room was severely cold due to the large square vents blowing in freezing air. They made a harsh humming sound, like the engines of a plane.  Josh was lying on the floor, his hands cuffed and the cold hard tile doing nothing to comfort his position. His head ached with confusion, his body weak with exhaustion. As he slowly sat up, Josh recognised the man to be Sargent Thomas Hawk, second in command to the sheriff, who never seemed to be around.

Accompanying Sargent Hawk, were 3 other men, one standing over Josh, two casually leaning against the walls, reserved, but ready to strike if necessary. Josh glanced at each man separately, searching their faces for familiarity, but none came. They all had the look of officers, suspicion in there eyes, cautious with their movements, constantly assessing the situation.  One of the three men was leaning against the thick metal door that was bolted shut. The door had no door knob and no window to the outside world. The tiny room’s atmosphere was all concentrated on Josh, like he was a piece of meat in a shop window.

As he watched with silent curiosity, Josh realized where he was, the police station.

“So…” Sargent Hawk said, rifling through the file until he found the right page. “Ah, here we are, Josh Horsnet Camper, am I right?” he asked, looking over the thick papers. Josh nodded in return, not saying a word.

“Do you know why you’re here, son?” Sargent Hawk asked in a polite, we’re-hear-to-help voice. Josh thought about it for a moment, considered it for a trick question. His options were simple: play dumb or tell the truth. Play dumb, he thought, since Hawk has already started with the acting approach, typical.

“No” he said, watching Hawk’s brown eyes darken as he crossed his arms. Because the truth is Josh did know why he was there. After all, he’d been there twice before, in the exact same situation.

You see, after the Great Quake, rebuilding the town involved returning to some very terrifying memories. So the town mayor and all his advisors decided to create a law to forbid anyone returning to there old homes. It was know as the Forgive and Forget Act. It literally became the motto of Thousand Oaks. The mayor held a town meeting which lasted two hours discussing and explaining the new law. It boiled down to forgiving mother nature for her terrifying wrath on Thousand Oaks by leaving all fallen and destroyed house as they were and forgetting the incident by building brand new homes.

Now, at the time, this seemed reasonable, but then people found out that they were building their new homes right next to their old ones, not in a new location. So whenever you left for work or school, you would walk right passed your old, destroyed, mangled home, so how can you forget something that you see everyday?

This became the basis of a huge protest by the citizens of Thousand Oaks that lasted a little over a year. But its repercussions were catastrophic. Laws became ridiculously strict. Punishments included loss of food and money, bringing Thousand Oaks to the lowest point of its history after the Quake: the silent war.

Josh was part of that protest; in fact, it was his friends who organised it. He was also known as “the silent stealer”, a nickname acquired after food became scares and the aim was to survive. It was also the reason for his two previous arrests. But this time it was different…

“Code 32 of the new settlement states that: no such person or persons will return to there old homes without governmental permission. Such breach of this will result in a consequential use of Elatone.” Sargent Hawk said, his voice ice cold. Josh rolled his emerald green eyes and watched the light reflecting off the shiny tiles.

Elatone, a drug discovered after the great quake became the weapon of choice by the police. Its basically an inject shot from a specially designed gun that causes temporary paralysis and memory loss. The moment it hits your blood stream, all your muscles become weak, allowing no voice to escape the victim. It made arresting people a hell of a lot easier, especially when they were uncooperative.

“So, Mr Camper, did you have governmental permission?”

Josh stared hard at Sargent Hawk, watching the malicious smile of evil spread across his face.

“Get him up” Hawk ordered, gently placing the file on the floor and rising to his feet. The two men closest to Josh rushed in, one grabbing each arm, pulling him to his feet and pushing him to the centre of the tiny room. Josh stumbled, regained his balance and stood tall. The other man stayed leaning against the door.

“Now, I’m only going to ask you this once boy; what were you doing at 1342 Herming Way?” Sargent Hawk asked, cracking his knuckles one at a time. Josh didn’t answer, knowing from bitter experience that no matter what he said, they wouldn’t believe him. So instead, he gazed at Sargent Hawks uniform.

It was navy blue pants and a matching shirt, meticulously pressed and ironed. The pants were tucked in to Hawk’s gleaming black boots. Josh could almost see his reflection in them. The shirt contained a small, army style name tag above the right breast pocket. On the other side were a bunch of gold stars that made Josh think of his childhood days where school was about the number of stars you can achieve in a week.

The three other men wore the exact same uniform, save for their number of stars. Sargent Hawk rolled his huge shoulders in a dramatically slow circle.

“Alright, have it your way” he took a step forward. And just when he was about to raise his arm, a shrilling, blood curdling scream flooded the room from the vents of freezing air. Instinctively, Josh looked upwards, his senses on high alert.

Because that voice was unmistakable; it was Gail Lewellin, the girl who shared Josh’s first kiss.

Reviews

[Jesse Jacques]

a little slow and a couple of spelling errors. but other than that, it's pretty good.

[Drako]

interesting twist here. i like the way this experiment is going based off these few chapters