Year-long NaNo discussion

Future idea for a book:


The Road of Horrors

I don’t remember much about the Waking. We hadn’t even named it that yet when it happened, but of course none of us knew what we were or why we were there in the first place. All I remember is the dark. And the cold. And the pain.

Bitter, knifing pain. The kind that chills you to your very marrow. And it was the first word I knew.

I can’t really explain how I know the words, or why I only remember them just now. I only know that I didn’t know them before, and yet the words appear out of nowhere in my mind. Dark. Cold. I shudder a little and sit up, surprising myself. I have legs. And arms, too. Hands. I turn them over and over, feeling my wrists, moving them up my body until I reach my neck, head, face, hair. It’s long and brown, but held back by something. Pins.

I am a living Being.

Those words also rise unbidden to my mind.

You are Alive.

I scramble forward, examine my black boots with the scuffed ends, the brown cargo trousers with innumerable pockets, and the plain grey shirt rolled up to my elbows. I search everything. Nothing, except what I have on. And a knife strapped to my leg, nearly as long as it too. There are wounds and scars and blood all over me, as if I was just in battle.

But if anything, it bothers me. My questions have not all been answered. I’m surprised to find myself thinking, but it’s a different kind of thinking to what I thought first. That had been programmed — I’d known it. No prepared answers are appearing in my head now.

That’s when I discover I can talk. I feel as though I knew I could, but somehow I didn’t...

‘Where am I?’ The voice is low, not gravelly. And it’s mine.

I suddenly realise why I was able to see myself and my clothes; something brilliant and shiny is pouring over me, flooding where I’m sitting with it’s rays. I frown in concentration.

Cold? No. Dark? No. Shirt? My shirt is the same colour. White? That can’t be it, my shirt isn’t glowing the way it is. I scrunch up my eyes, racking my brains.

‘Light! Light!’ I jump up and shout, waving my arms in triumph at my discovery. The Light has left much to explore now — I see green plants (Foliage) creeping over high silver things (Walls) made of a shiny thing reflecting the Light (Metal). It’s all bolted together in sheets and guards the small path we are on that twists and turns until out of sight around a corner. I squint but can’t see round it. I can’t see what’s over the walls either, just a bright blue patch of sky up above. It’s very pretty.

I wouldn’t have turned round if it hadn’t been for the Sound. I turn my head and see other people—other teenagers—they’re waking up too, rubbing their eyes, surveying themselves in wonder just like I did. That’s when I see the wall behind us, meeting the other two walls. We’re boxed in.

I frown. Something feels...feels wrong. What are we all doing here? Where did we come from? I run among them with a sudden sense of urgency, hastily showing them the walls, the creepers, the sky as they wake.

A tall boy with clothes much too short struggles up walks to me from among them; he cocks his head at me.

‘What are we here for? Where are we?’ His sandy hair falls over one eye and he swipes it back; he’s looking at me suspiciously. I shake my head. He relinquishes his grasp on the knife at his side, a look of relief passing over his face. He’s staring at me curiously now, not in anger.

‘My name’s Tool, by the way. You aite? You’re kinda pale..’

I nod slowly.

‘I can’t...I don’t know what my name..’

My voice sounds so weak, but I fight down whatever is rising in my throat and look him in the eye. They’re really nice eyes, light green. I wonder what colour mine are.

‘Come on. We need to piece together what happened here.’

We spend all day putting our heads together: me, Tool, an Asian boy called Mikk, Norwegian one called Asa and two other boys, Rellele and Carsten. We watch the other boys. Several of them aren’t waking up. We just sit there as night sets in, watching them — their injuries, inflicted by Whoever has Placed Us here of course, are much worse than our scars and burns. One girl has an ugly blackened gash all up her calf, disappearing underneath her shorts hem; from the look of her eyes rolling back in her head, matted blond curls sticking to her temple, she’s not gonna last long. And there’s nothing we can do for her.

All we can do is wish each other good night and hope against hope that we’ll find something tomorrow.

O_0 wow. great hook.

LOVE. THIS. OMW

Thanks Meri! I just had some spare time on my hands and decided to write something different

Haha thanks Elizabeth! You’re really encouraging 😁 by the way how do you keep up with specific updates on other people’s WIPs on here? I sometimes have to scroll down for a VERY long time to find more recent posts

Abbie, if group notifications are turned on, I believe you should be getting notifications every time someone posts on any thread in this group.

Okay thank you! I’ll try and fix that. I’m not very tech savvy 😬

Yeah, there should be a group notifications you can turn on. :)

OH MY! Abbie, this is insanely good! You definitely have me wanting to know more!

Oceane! *waves ecstatically* I’m so glad to hear from you! How are you doing?

Thanks so much I really enjoyed writing this as a break from my main work. I am a major Maze Runner fan, so this idea is right up my street. 😃😃😃

Me too 😉 how are you Shine?

Abbie wrote: "Oceane! *waves ecstatically* I’m so glad to hear from you! How are you doing?

Thanks so much I really enjoyed writing this as a break from my main work. I am a major Maze Runner fan, so this idea ..."

I'm great! And yes! The Maze Runner is marvelous!

A little more of my future book (since I didn’t lose this one too!!):

‘Meeting gathered.’ Tool hits his machete point down into the cracked cement of the roads bed,
sending chunks of grey concrete everywhere. ‘Let’s start.’

All of us are sitting in a semi circle with Tool in front of us all, facing us; we all voted he be chairman. The day has dawned bright and early like the last, a cloudless sky. We’ve dragged the bodies away from the heat but they already smell terrible. I hate to think how I’d feel if they were my friends, which it’s quite likely they were. Why else would we all have been dumped in here together like this? Still, it’s horrible seeing their unmoving eyes and limp corpses; I only wish I knew why they were dead. Perhaps they’re better off than we are.

‘Ok, first to call,’ says Tool, and Mikk raises his hand. Tool nods to him, and the meeting begins.

‘I wanna know why She can’t remember her name,’ he says, pointing at me. He isn’t suspicious, I can see that in his eyes; but I feel hurt all the same for reasons I don’t even understand. And even more than that, I have the strange feeling that I don’t want Tool to see my fear. More than anything.

‘Ask her yourself Mikk,’ says Tool, raising an eyebrow. ‘She may not have a name, but She’s not stupid.’

‘I agree,’ I mutter sarcastically. ‘And in answer, I don’t have a damn clue. None of this makes sense. Sure we can talk about it all we like but it’s not gonna change things.’

Mikk stares at me as though my ability to speak alone is a marvel. Tool sighs and nods to Asa. ‘You, shortie?’

Asa blushes as if he’s embarrassed but we all know Tool’s just teasing, despite Asa really being small. He shifts uncomfortably.

‘Ummm...I guess my only question is what do we do now?’

‘Best one so far,’ Tool murmurs. ‘What do you think, She?’

‘Quit calling me that,’ I frown. ‘Don’t any of you have brains? Just come up with a name, I’m sick of being called She.’

‘Whatever.’ Tool looks like he’s enjoying himself. ‘What do you think, boys? What shall we name this sucker?’

‘Shut Up or I’ll Punch You?’ Carsten has been reading my current expression. ‘Definitely not Sucker, Tool. You gotta watch your words. She might just hit them right outta your mouth.’ Rellele gives a sarcastic nod of affirmation.

The ice breaks and we laugh a little. ‘I think Eva,’ says Asa quietly. He gives me a shy smile.

I never realised before but Rellele can’t speak. He signs to Carsten , who translates, ‘she’s smart enough to choose which name we give her. I vote Wood.’

‘Mmmm...how about Nails?’ says Mikk with a sly grin. ‘After all, your name is Tool, so...’

‘Shut your suckin’ face,’ Tool groans, and this time we all laugh; long and loud. We really feel like friends now. Asa smiles at me again. I like that kid.

‘You’re the only one left, Tool,’ says Carsten. ‘Make your move.’

‘Wood,’ says Tool suddenly, smiling at me. His smile seems almost as shy as Asa’s, but he won’t look away. ‘She has eyes just like it.’ No one says anything for a long time. Finally, Asa breaks the silence.

‘Well, guess She’s Named now?’ He smiles again, obviously his trademark. I feel as though before this we would have been good friends. He spreads his arms wide. ‘Welcome, Wood! Glad you’re with us.’ He shakes my hand warmly.

They all take it in turns to smile at me encouragingly, and I realise they want me to say something; I’d forgotten I was next in line. With the whole Naming thing I got a bit lost. I clear my throat and nod to Tool before starting.

‘What I think is that this meeting’s all well and good but sitting here with a pile of dead bodies trying to figure out what to make of this place isn’t gonna help anyone. I don’t know about you...’I pause, trying to come up with the right word, and settle on Tool’s, ‘...umm...suckers, but I’m hungry and there’s definitely no food here. Our only option is to go out there.’ I nod to the misted turn in the walled Road. Asa coughs and looks awkward; Carsten sneezes unconvincingly. Mikk merely raises his eyebrows. I frown.

‘What’s your problem?’

‘Well...’ Carsten looks around for support, ‘we kinda don’t know what’s out there, Sh—Wood,’ he corrects himself. ‘And what if Whoever Placed Us Here turns up? Our chances of escape are then null.’

I turn to him, fists clenched. ‘And what makes you think they’re coming back? To rescue us? If those crapheads shoved us in here, wiped nearly all of our memories and left a lot of us half dead, do you get the feeling they care whether we live or die?’ My mind has been working hard on this theory all morning, and from the looks on their faces they believe me. Tool leans back, arms folded. Mikk stops twitching his arm. Rellele quits itching his scar. Asa’s smile is frozen on his features, eyes scared. I just hope I can get it to make sense to them.

‘And from what I gather, there’s no food round here. Just a bunch of corpses.’ I stand, sheathing my knife. ‘And if you...suckers think I’m gonna risk my neck staying here waiting for a rescue, you’re wrong. There’s nothing but death left for us here. And personally, I don’t wanna know how they died.’ I motion to the still bodies; Tool nods. I get the idea that when Tool nods, it suggests finality. He really has been a leader from the first.

‘Wood is right. It’s crappy but it’s true. First bit of sense we’ve heard in a long time from any of you suckers. No way we’re waiting here; we’ll starve anyway even if there is no food out there.’ He jerks his head to the road. ‘Well? Any questions?’

‘Just one,’ said Carsten. ‘Rellele has a wound.’ He held up his brother’s shirt, showing a nasty looking black gash. It’s raised with red flecks and I’m pretty certain it’s infected. ‘My question is this — how is he supposed to keep up with us? He’s ill! What do we do?’

‘Only thing we can do,’ pipes up Asa. He looks around at our shocked faces, embarrassed. ‘Well...he’ll have to stay. They’ll have to stay.’

Tool sheaths his own blade and nods to me. It’s becoming a thing. He smiles though, and there’s a surprising amount of courage in those eyes.

‘Come on suckers. Let’s get this thing done. Carsten, Rellele, you’re staying behind. Kill anything that moves. I mean it. Somehow I get the feeling the People Who Put Us Here aren’t going to make this easy for us. Just a hunch.’

He looks to me and Asa.

‘Guess it’s our chance to find out what the hell’s going on. After you.’

And he signals to the Road.


—

Oops; at the end it’s meant to say “the Road” 😜