30,000

So I've gotten over 30K, I'm taking a little break. I skipped a small part, where I couldn't get my characters from point A to point B, but it's going pretty good. Here's the first chapter. It's not great, te later chapters are better, but it's okay. :)

Chapter One- Later

Mareke rolled out of her sleeping bag, and looked at the brown-haired girl hovering over her face.
“What do you want, Jezza? It’s too early to get up now,” she looked out the window. “Jezza! It’s barely even morning. I have to get the last of the vegetables out of the Northern Garden. It’s nearly two miles away and it’s snowing.”
Jezza rolled her eyes. “Well, duh it’s snowing. That’s why we live in the Snow Plains. It snows most of the year,” the girl shook her head. “But that’s now what I wanted to tell you. There’s a person coming into town! It isn’t even a droid or an official! It’s a real person!”
Mareke goggled at her, annoyance lost. “A person? No way. It must be an official.”
“No, it’s a real person. Bear looked through his binoculars and said he couldn’t see a number on the person’s coat. All the officials have numbers. Jena said we should go out and meet whoever it is. I’m bringing my big stick. He might be armed or something,” Jezza sounded excited and Mareke couldn’t blame her. Still, Mareke tried to appear disinterested in front of the younger girl. Appearances were everything, and Mareke couldn’t afford any apparent weaknesses. That was how people got hurt. You showed a flaw and someone would attack it.
“I’ll get my stuff and meet you in the food hall. I’m hungry, even if you aren’t.” Jezza bounced on her toes and hurried away to the food hall.
Mareke shut the door to her room and opened the closet behind her desk. Her possessions were thrown in with a mixture of yellowed paper and dried glue bottles. The building she lived in was an old school, miraculously untouched by the Planetary Wars from centuries ago.
She pulled out her clothes; leggings, boots, and a sweater, mismatched and patched in various colors. Her jacket was fleece-lined with good, old-fashioned fleece. Not the government’s cheap, thin stuff. She got dressed and grabbed her pack from where it sat by a large Old World atlas. Mareke paged through the atlas most days, absorbing the photos and maps of the land beyond Silverhurst, her small town.
‘I’m bringing my big stick. He might be armed or something.’ Jezza’s voice echoed though Mareke’s head. Mareke frowned, then walked back to her bad and reached under her pillow. She had a large frying pan and a small steak knife concealed there, both of which were technically illegal. Nobody really cared though. People without weapons were goners. There were too many hungry animals wandering around. Only a few months before, someone had been mauled by a starving grizzly bear.
Mareke stuffed the pan and the knife into her pack and headed down the halls to the food hall, as she pulled her blond hair back in a braid. She got closer to the cafeteria and heard raised voices. She slid into the hall and entered the food line. Apparently, breakfast was being served early.
“Call the government! That’s the rule. We’re supposed to tell them so they can figure out who’s outside.”
“Talk to him! Maybe he’s lost or something. Maybe he’s a government official. Maybe- “
“I don’t want to be in trouble. You know what happened to the last kid who didn’t call. I want to stay alive.” That was Jena. She was a perfect model of what the government wanted. A follower, not a leader. “Let’s talk to him and keep an eye on him while someone calls the government.”
Mareke sat at a table, next to Jezza, and bit into her toast. “So, what’s happening? It sounds like Jena’s trying to take charge again.”
Jezza snorted. “That’s the understatement of the year.” She sat up and impersonated Jena’s snotty voice. “I think we should call the government. I know we’ll get in trouble if we don’t. I’ll take all the credit and be the model citizen.”
Mareke laughed. “Yeah. So we’re all just sitting here trying to decide whether to let the stranger in or not. That’s where this whole place fails. They raise us to do just what they want, then when something actually happens we run around like dead chickens.”
The two girls sat at the table and finished their breakfast. Jena was still shouting at the crowd when Mareke and Jezza slipped outside. The snow crunched loudly under their boots and their breath froze in the air.
Mareke paused and looked across the town. It looked almost pretty when all the ruins and dirt were hidden. She couldn’t even see the white government droids glimmering in the sun. Maybe this was what the world used to look like. All white and sparkly and clean.
Suddenly a movement caught the girl’s eye. There was a small bright shape a mile or two away.
“That’s the boy, isn’t it?”
Jezza nodded. “Or whatever he is. What is he wearing? I’ve never seen colors like that. I suppose it would be sky-colored if the photos of the Old World are right.” Most days the sky over the Snow Plains was a muddy blue-gray, one result of the Wars.
Mareke dropped her pack and pulled out her frying pan. “I suppose we might as well wait here for him. It’s not like Jena and the others are getting anywhere. The least we can do is figure out who he is.”
They stood there, letting the snowflakes fall around them like pixie-dust. The cold burned away the grimy smell in the air and it was almost nice to stand there as the boy walked closer.
Jezza twitched as the school door crashed open and Jena’s voice cut through the air.
“Leo, go to the government office on Hammond Street and let Officer McMinn know that someone’s gotten past the droids. Take Eliot with you. He’s bothering me.”
Mareke sighed. “I can’t wait ‘till next year when Jena’s too old for the school and she gets to live in one of the houses downtown. I’d be glad never to hear her voice again.”
Jena and the other kids from the school gathered around Mareke and Jezza. Jena glared at them. “What are you doing? You should have waited for me to leave, not come out here alone. Are you stupid? He could kill you.”
“Not that you care or anything,” Jezza muttered quietly.
Jena frowned. “Leave off, freak. Mareke, go out there and bring him back here. Tell him I’ll talk to him, and that we’ve already called the government.”
Mareke turned towards the boy as Jezza’s voice rang through the air. “Scared, Jena?” Mareke moaned inwardly. Jezza had a smart mouth at the dumbest times.
There was a loud clap and a thump. Some of the boys howled appreciatively. Mareke wheeled around. Jezza and Jena were rolling in the snow, hitting and kicking each other.
“Come on Jezza! Don’t let Jena smack you down!” someone hollered.
“Jena! Jena! Beat her up! She’s half your size!”
Jezza wrapped herself around Jena and smacked the bigger girl’s ears. Jena howled and clouted Jezza, knocking her away.
Mareke trembled. She didn’t want to fight. She hated fighting. Jezza is my friend. She needs me right now. Mareke bit her lip. Just do it. It won’t matter later, at least not much. She looked down at the two girls in the snow, and then jumped in.
She landed on Jena and heard the winds come rushing out of the girl’s lungs. Jena gasped then hit Mareke’s face. Mareke fell backwards and held her stinging cheek.
Jezza dove forwards again, her brown hair fluttering behind her, and fell hard across Jena, before a strong had lifted her off. Jena lunged up, but the strange boy put his foot on her.
“I don’t normally have girls fighting over me this early in the day,” he said. His voice was cheerful but he held Jena and Jezza firmly. “Will you two stop if I let you up? I’d like to introduce myself, but I can’t do that very well right now.” He was tall with black hair and wind-chapped skin.
Jezza grinned. “I’m Jezza, and I won’t beat Jena up anymore. I got her good already.”
Jena snarled at her.
The boy let Jezza down and looked at Jena. “Well, what is it? Can I let you go?”
“Leggo me!” Jena struggled to get free. “I’ll set the government on you!”
“You’re a bit late for that. They’ve been after me for ages.” The boy lifted foot and Jena leapt to her feet. “I’m Troy Matthis. I guess you’re Jena,” he turned to Mareke and Jezza, “and you’re Jezza the Firecracker.”
Jezza grinned at him. “This is my best friend, Mareke. She doesn’t like fighting, just like you.”
Jena shoved the two girls away and glared at the boy. “I’m the leader around here, so listen up! Don’t bother arguing or anything, because Leo and Eliot already told our government official that you’re here.”
“Why are you here?” someone from the crowd piped up. “Who are you? No one’s ever gotten past the droids before.” There was wonder and a trace of envy in the voice. Everyone in the city had to work hard for his or her daily food, whether it was harvesting the Northern Garden or mining deep underground.
Several years before, a boy has tried to run away. He had left in the middle of the night and tried to sneak past the droids that patrolled the city limits. He had been found in the morning as a black scorch mark on the hard, clay-like ground.
The new boy shrugged. “I’m not from anywhere in particular, just everywhere in general.” No one laughed. “My name is Troy and I used to live in the East, by the capital and the ocean.”
“There isn’t an ocean. It was evaporated in the Wars by all the rockets and nuclear submarines,” Jena said.
“Well, I guess it’s not all wet, but it’s like an ocean, with all the salt. You can almost imagine what it looked like. It would be beautiful, I think.”
Mareke frowned. The water that came out of the well by the school was a rusty brown and it tasted metallic. Why would anyone want a sea of that?
There was another loud crash as the school door banged open again. Officer McMinn puffed towards them. He looked a bit like a gorilla, Mareke thought, if her encyclopedia was anything to go by. He pushed his way through the crowd of kids and stood in front of Troy.
“Who the devil are you, boy?” he roared. Spittle flew out of his mouth. “How did you get in here?”
“My name is Troy and I walked in.” Mareke blinked. The boy had lost all the politeness and warmth from his voice. “I just walked.”
McMinn swore. “That’s a lie, boy! Tell me the truth now, and I might save you some pain later.”
“I don’t think there will be very much later, now.”