**A few paragraphs from my opening chapter**
Chapter 1
My bag weighed heavy on my back but I could get over the pain. It was the arrogant laugh of Seb behind me that was driving me insane. He hadn’t stopped since we’d come off the plane and I just wanted to punch him in that stupid face of his. The guys who were with him were hanging on to every word he said, his conquests, the fact that the local girls always swarmed around him as soon as they saw his face, which was ironic because no-one had even looked in his general direction. We didn’t really know each other but I guess boys just flock together when they find a subject they like. Girls might be a little more complex than that. We size each other up, we look to check to see if we would have even a smidge in common before deciding that no we don’t, and we form the friendship with ourselves… Or maybe that was just me.
"Hej! Hello!" The man with the massive placard shouted at our group. He looked just as geeky as his picture showed him to be. He wore round glasses, an Aztec printed jumper and, oh god, brown corduroy trousers. He had on loafers and wore a cheesy grin on his face when we got closer and closer to him. His blonde hair had a side parting and his eyes were the bluest of blue ever.
"Hello everyone. Velkomin! Your journey was okay?"
Okay he was kind of cute in a geeky older guy way.
"It was okay thank you." Keely responded for all of us. It would have been a lot better if someone had put tape on Seb’s mouth though!
"Follow me follow me." He motioned for us to follow him and we all carried on walking towards the bus they had outside for us. I dropped the bag from my shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief at the brief respite. I went to put it in the trunk at the side of the bus, but someone picked up the bag for me and put it in.
"Thanks. I could do it though."
"I know but I thought I’d just come to the rescue." He grinned.
Xavier was more handsome than Seb. Where Seb was dark haired and cocky, Xavier was blonde and kind of brooding. Usually I would have associated those traits differently but in this case I couldn’t put dark and brooding in the same sentence when describing Seb.
I smiled at Xavier and got on the bus, sitting at the back on my own. It was easier for me to distance myself from people but people never seem to get that I want to be left alone most of the time. I looked up when I saw a shadow fall across me and looked up to see Miya. Miya was Japanese and so pretty. She had jet black hair that was styled into a short bob, her sweeping fringe kept out of eyes by a bow. She was wearing such a cute dress and thick tights with boots.
"Can I sit back here with you? I need to get away from Seb’s narcissism."
I laughed and motioned for her to sit down.
Everyone on this bus was here because we were something that wasn’t acceptable to society. This trip was meant to reform us, so we could go back into society. It was a ridiculous notion that people who weren’t quite socially acceptable needing reforming before we went back into society but that’s the way it was now. You had to be ‘perfect’ in order to be accepted anywhere. You couldn’t have a mental illness, or be slightly larger than everyone else or voice opinions or be gay. Those who had committed a crime, like arson or stealing were locked away on a remote island to stop them doing it again. Bigger crimes, you were given to an angry mob that beat you to death as retribution. In some cases you were hung or just killed outright.
There was only one ruler for everyone on the planet and he had spread his vile hate crimes like a cancer. He called himself The Overlord, first getting into power over in America. His agendas reminded many of Hitler; the need to be the one ruler, the narcissistic view that there was only one superior race. He started to get these notions into people’s heads slowly, adding bits here and there into his speeches until most of America were under his spell. He had charmed that oozed out of him like a sap from a tree; he could charm the pants off any woman in the world as he liked to brag. Personally I couldn’t see the charm but women were a sucker for him. People started following him around like his own personal army and guard as he went from country to country spreading his malicious agendas. From what I’d read about in books they implied that he had done this peacefully, but the truth was he had gained all this via war. His people wearing black uniforms that resembled space suits, shooting anyone that stood in their way. He gained followers, monthly to begin with and then weekly, daily, before he had nearly everyone on his side and he became the biggest person in the world. They burnt history books so there was nothing out there to state there had been anything before him, he re-wrote history; praised Hitler and other dictators while putting names like Churchill and Pankhurst into the mud, making them criminals in everyone’s mind. Books and comics about superheroes and people who saved the world were ultimately destroyed so people didn’t get the idea to stand up against him. The UK was the last place he set his sight on. The monarchy was normal now, titles gone after he abolished them. He tried to slaughter them but decided that exile would probably be a worse fate than death. They could see what they had done; let him in. Let him take over us all. The monarchy could have stopped it, raised an army against him but they sat back and let him come instead. They roamed around the streets now, not quite knowing where to go or what to do. They weren’t allowed back in their palace to get things, they weren’t allowed anywhere near it. They were ridiculed in the street, spat on, made to do degrading things to stay alive. They let this thing into our country, let him meet people; spread his lies around the place. He rules the world, with some of his closest minions ruling under his watch in different places.
It was horrendous out there.
"What do you think we’ll be doing here?" Miya asked me.
"I’ve heard we’re sent to some camp, where we are pumped full of chemicals to make our brains normal and then given surgery to make our body to the ideal standard…"
I jumped as Keely’s head popped up from the chair in front of us. Keely was cute, the girl next door kind of cute. She didn’t realise how pretty she was and that the guys loved her. She had white blonde hair that was layered and framed her face. Her eyes were big and blue, her lips rosy pink. I didn’t quite know why she was here in fact. There was nothing wrong with her body, so it wasn’t that.
"We’re in the middle of nowhere. Where do you expect them to do all that?" Miya asked.
"It’s just what I’d heard…"
I left them to it, arguing about why we were here. I wondered myself. Why were we sent so far away? There were no signposts to say where we actually were in Denmark, but I suppose that was what they wanted. Town names had been stripped long ago; all that remained were the names of the places you lived. England, America, China …
Denmark.
There were rolling hills, long roads and vast seas. It would have been heaving in years gone by but now it was nothing, no boats, no people milling around to help unpack ships. It was a husk.
The scenery was beautiful though and I hoped we stayed here permanently. It still seemed so untouched, despite the emptiness.
Comments