My name is Luka Grace; My number is 2, to anyone else this number is completely pointless... I'm not entirely sure why I've held onto it and clutched it as a precious memory, when all I associate with it are bad outcomes and pain.
I must have been around seven at the time, the plane I was just on had crashed; I barely remember anything about the crash itself. Just the tossing and turning that left me nauseated and feeling only disgust and despair. I don't know where we were flying to; I don't care and I guess I didn't care in the past either.
What I do remember however are just fragments of memory. Some sort of box impaled in the fuselage of the plane, long and sleek with a black reflective casing; reminding me of a dark coloured slab if polished marble. I began to approach it, I seem to have forgotten altogether about the plane crash; or the fact my parents were lying there upside down; still strapped to their seats, there entire bodies completely limp; they were dead.
In the corner of my eye I was able to see a few other kids moving towards the same object I was moving to; it was impossible to make out their faces. However judging from their height and their voices, they must have been around the same age as me. We all made it to the strange box at around the same time.
The first figure to touch it caused a strange reaction; a blinding light erupted from the object, the figure collapsed to the ground writhing in agony. I knew that I shouldn't touch it but I did anyway, I seemed drawn to it. the same thing happened to me. I could feel it, the intense heat that travelled up my arm and pushed its way into my body; my world went black as I fell towards the ground.
Before I lost consciousness however, I heard a soft, soothing voice that seemed to reach every part of my being "You are number two" then I blacked out.
A fair whilst later I awoke in a hospital bed, the white walls surrounding me. I had been lying their for a few days, just blinking in and out of consciousness; the nurses and doctors soft voices comforting me in my half-asleep state.
I think it had been in the fifth day that a young man; no older than 20 approached me while I was awake, the head nurse standing beside me and what looked like social workers as well, the freckled man, with short ginger hair and quite possibly the biggest smile in existence bent down and said to me in a soothing voice "Hi Luka, my name is Henrî" looking somewhat solemn he continued " I believe that the doctors have told you about your parents death... Am I correct?" I nodded. It was strange really; I didn't care much that my parents were dead, to this day I have no idea why. Henrî continued "Well then, from today onwards Luka, I will be your guardian".
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It's already been another seven years from when those memories took place; Henrî is still looking after me. But for the next two weeks the school I am attending us letting my year go on a trip to Japan. The shuffling and mindless chatter of the people in the bus was drowned out by my own thoughts; so much so that I didn't even pay attention to the conversation if the two people next to me, the two people I cared for most in this world; my two greatest friends; a short boy a few months older than myself with dark hair and a buzz cut, it's sorta embarrassing and he knows it himself; his name Alex.
Then there's the tall, thin girl sitting by the window of the bus; Sarah. Her long,flowing blonde hair along her back and her sea green eyes are her most prominent features; she's one of the most popular girls in the school and basically every guy has a crush on her. But that isn't really important. Still out of Alex and Sarah's conversation I was hearing fragments of what they were saying. Something about the three of us going to watch a new movie that came out when we get back.
All of a sudden the bus lurched to a stop, so fast that a few people were flung forward and head-butted the seat in front of them with a loud THUMP.
This was accompanied by a strange choppy, whirling sound and the steady hum of many many engines. "Choppers" one of the boys at the far back said, looking out the window he was right; sleek black helicopters. Visibly complete with weaponry, the same went for the dozens of soldiers that poured out of the black vans that had appeared. The bus was on a bridge; now completely surrounded on both sides by the soldiers, some carrying rifles and others with missile launchers. "Everyone leave your vehicle and line up at the side of the bridge with your hands behind your heads".
There were a lot of moans and a few people began crying, but we all complied anyway. They looked at us in our lines; the soldier checking us seemed to be comparing us to a picture, it was impossible to say who it was that was featured on the image due to the the angle the man held it at. I had the most horrible feeling in my gut, cold shivers running down my spine. At last the soldier came to me, he said something that I couldn't hear through his thick mask, they must be using radio I thought. The rushing of heavy boots.
I was pinned to the ground by a soldier, Alex dove at the soldier who had pushed me down. I heard a gunshot, and then a THUMP as a body hit the floor. Sarah screamed, collapsed then just sobbed; eventually fainting. I could feel the boot pressing hard against my back, I was suppressing the tears in my eyes. The soldier who had been checking our faces stood their; his rifle pointed at my head, he lifted his mask this time I could head what he was saying. "Sorry kiddo for the good of your country you'll have to di-". BANG!.
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A small fountain of blood erupted from the side of the soldiers face. Everyone, even the soldiers were screaming and running in panic, however the soldiers quickly recovered and begun spraying bullets in a direction in one side if the bridge. I turned to see what was going on, too petrified to get up or try running, expecting too see some sort of massive monster or squad of armed men tearing through the terrified soldiers. Standing there was a single figure, only a few inches smaller than myself.
The figure was wrapped in a black cloak: his face couldn't be seen, holding what seemed to be a small metallic object... some form of pistol in his right hand. He had already begun picking off the soldiers as their hail of bullets shot towards him. You had a good run I thought sympathetically to the figure. Just as I expected, the bullets stopped the person in their tracks, their body shuddered from the impact and they collapsed to the ground, losing the grip of their handgun. Dead.
The soldiers by this time seemed to have forgotten about me; marching cautiously towards the body, guns pointed to the figures head. A few of the soldiers stumbled on the hundreds of shell casings that littered the ground and a few even fell over. The boy, the undoubtedly most certainly dead boy shifted, the few soldiers next to him now were startled, it must have just been a muscle spasm. An odd glint caught my eye, hundreds of tiny metallic objects lifted off the floor, the shell casings.
A strange hum reached my ears, it was impossible to locate the source of the sound; it could just be from the area around me, is it the air?. Panicked screams and shouts, hundreds of soft whirs, then the sound of impact. Every single soldier hit the ground, blood pooling around them, the figure stood up laughing "Wooh, that was fun" he turned his gaze towards the dead soldiers I looked closer at the bodies, the shell casings were forced into their armor, and it was obvious several had got through and pierced flesh, how did that happen... how.
The figure suddenly turned his gaze to me, it started walking towards me, grabbing my arm whilst pulling me up he said "Get up Two, you have work to do" Two... He called me Two. I was far far too dazed to do anything, I blindly followed him, ignoring the wails and screams of my classmates, I completely forgot about Alex's death, the throbbing in my head drowned out Sarah's screams. The darkness fell again, I heard the boys voice, definitely a boy "Your a real weak one aren't you? LuLu" That bastard, giving me a pet name and calling me weak. I couldn't retaliate. The world went dark, my vision narrowing. Consciousness left me.
I awoke, but my body refused to open its eyes, i felt warm, I could hear the occasional crackling of a campfire next to me. There were also two voices, a boy and a girls, that boy was almost certainly the one who killed all of those soldiers. I opened my eyes. Just darkness with a few small white dots in the on that pure black landscape, it took me a few seconds, far too long to realise I was looking up at the night sky; it was already night time?.
Looking around I saw two black figures, their bodies illuminated by the campfire that they stood a couple of feet away from, they were looking in the opposite direction of me, talking amongst themselves. I sat up, intending to sneak away. My body felt weak and my legs gave way, I lost my balance, stumbling and eventually hitting the ground with a loud THUMP, they turned and looked at me. "It's good to know your awake LuLu" the boy sneered, though it seemed that their wasn't any real hostility behind his words.
Only one thing ran across my mind and I said it out loud "Who are you?" The pair chortled a little and put on a bit of a show "I'm Sherlock" the boy laughed "and I'm Watson" the girl said; the two laughing together now. Mocking me. Finishing their little spectacle with jazz hands. I just stare at them, seriously making a joke at this time, after all that just happened. "Really, who are you?" The pair began to laugh hysterically, I asked again, this time with a much harsher tone to my words; trying to make myself sound as intimidating and imposing as possible "Who are you, what are your names" The pair laughed again; the boy walked towards me, twirling around slowly as he spoke "Look LuLu, intimidating me or her isn't going to work" he greeted me with another sinister grin.
They took their hoods off anyway, the first person I noticed was certainly the boy, because what I saw was something really unusual. The boy had extremely pale skin; like some sort of tacky ghost costume, his hair was a seemingly perfect clean white,then there were his eyes, a piercing crimson colour, just who on earth was this kid, he was definitely around my age. However one more thing really made him stand out, on his left cheek was an anarchy symbol, it was a similar colour to his eyes; a tattoo, strange birthmark, branding; I had no idea.
Then there was the girl, she had short auburn hair tied back in a pony tail and freckled cheeks, she was about the same height as the boy next to her, maybe an inch or two shorter, with big baby blue eyes and a petite frame. Still taller than me.
She greeted me with a grin before the boy had a chance to speak "Hi, I'm Mary, if this guy" she elbows him lightly, still smiling "did anything bad to you just tell me, oh and don't worry; what's going on might look bad, however we have no intention of hurting you". The boy shrugged, his voice was definitely a little higher than mine when he spoke, but the way he spoke made him sound like an adult "Well then, I'll introduce myself, the names Leo, don't wear it out" he just looked away, did he already dislike me?.
The girl, Mary elbowed him again, this time much much harder "Leo!, you can at least try to be polite". Leo just shrugged, walking away he started to stoke the campfire, Mary laughed at me as my eyes began to close "get some sleep Luka, your still in a bit of shock from everything that's happened" she sat next to Leo and huddled up closer to him. Just who are these people?. What do they want with me?.