chapter 0

One Year Ago

Fire crackled, shouting could was heard in the distance-buildings being destroyed and guns firing. A young boy named Eli sat there in the middle of the street where his parents and his siblings had been covered in debris trying to help them. But the debris covering them was too heavy for him and him alone to carry so he just sat there staring into the distance not knowing what he needed to. His body froze, unable to cry from the scene he witnessed. It had only been two years and the war itself was coming to a close the invaders' numbers were dwindling and their leaders were close to being captured, but Eli only understood the pain and nothing of the war's importance.

Gripping his fingers on his mother's work dress hoping she would get up and walk, but the giant debris of rock covered her.

"Why won't they stop fighting mother?" Eli asked, not knowing his mother could hear him.

"They just wanted to be friends. They shared with us knowledge.What did they do wrong?" Eli asked again, staring up at the red clouds in the sky.

Eli curled himself up in a ball feeling defeated on the inside knowing help wouldn't come in time. But since everything was so destroyed, why would it matter?

What caused this war he thought to himself?

From the distance Eli heard the shouting coming closer. He got up wondering; hoping help had arrived.

But in his horror on both sides of the street he saw the enemy and his own side charging towards them.

Guns pointed at each other he wondered if he was the target but amid the shouting he heard his father's name and his mother's name and knew they were the targets and began screaming.

"PlEASE HELP THEM!" He yelled as loud as his little voice could muster, only to be overshadowed by the soldiers running past Eli and shooting at each other.

Eli slumped to the ground, knowing help wouldn't truly come to his aid, when a tap on his shoulder alerted him in the battle.

"Come with me," the soldier said, wearing the dark grey uniform of the army for his planet.

Eli struggled, but he listened and followed the soldier only for the other side to shout something.

"Why are you listening to them?!" But in response to the person shouting the soldier getting Eli to move shot the enemy without hesitating.

"We have to go don't worry about your family winning this war and when we do we have the power to revive the dead," the soldier shouted before Eli heard a huge gunfight behind him as he ran the enemy had been gunned down.

Eli followed the soldier before tripping to the ground-

Present day

Eli sat on his desk, when his head slammed on the table he quickly awoke and checked his time it was the middle of the school week and he was staring across to the void. The teacher had been lecturing the class about a past war before they had all flocked to this planet. He rolled his eyes and kept himself from sleeping, his head kept bobbing up and down nearly smacking himself on the desk table but he managed to keep himself awake. But when the lecture had stopped he could feel a bunch of eyes staring at him and turned his attention to the teacher at the front of the classroom trying to call out his name. Eli took out his ear plugs that were hidden carefully among his long curly hair.

"Oh shoot!" He said to himself knowing he had just given up the location of his earphones.

The teacher shook his head in disappointment. He wore a black blazer, and long trousers and had hazel eyes.

"I assume you haven't been paying for anything that I've said?" The teacher asked.

Eli looked up at the teacher and slowly thought about it before shrugging his shoulders and looked back out the window again, where all the tall spiral buildings could be seen for miles.

"I've been telling the class about our victorious history against the foul species who tried attacking kids like you have no respect for our brave soldiers," The teacher explained.

Eli just sighed, he knew what the teacher was trying to do but he had experienced the great war himself in fact nearly all the students who attended this class had experienced it too.

"Yeah those soldiers fighting bravely sure," Eli replied rolling his eyes knowing full well what side of the war he was on.

They were the invaders not the victims.

The teacher was shocked at Eli's response and had him sent to the principal's office who was used to Eli's antics by now but he didn't do it aimlessly or just for attention.

Eli was in the very depths of the war on his planet, the invasion growing strongly against both planets, his city had erupted in fire and blood ran the street.

However being only ten years old at the time the only protection he had were the soldiers fighting back and a wooden bat.

The wooden bat burned in the fire before he could do anything.

When he sees people cheering about the victories, it disgusted him.

The other world that had been invading them was because they had attacked first.

Sitting in the office with the principal frowning at Eli, he had a long beard and wore a suit. His hair was short and he had brown eyes.

"Eli it's been about half a year attending this school and have managed to find your way around?" The principal asked initiating the conversation first.

Eli shrugged his shoulders before finally responding.

"Yes. Everyones just boring," He shrugged his shoulders before blowing the fringe out of his face.

"It would make your life easier after all the horrors you've witnessed. I hope you listen to my advice instead of acting to the other students," The principal spoke calmly while resting his hands on the table while Eli just rested his head back and stared at the ceiling.

"Fine I will try," Eli replied knowing the principal takes that so he could leave.

Instead of attending the rest of his classes he ran out of school and explored the city.

Currently what remained of the people who originated here had either been destroyed in the war or in the process of being knocked down.

The tall spiral buildings had windows that reflected off light; it was used to bounce the sunlight onto solar panels to the apartments on the high-rise complexes.

Eli however turned down a street that traveled to the unfinished parts of the city where he would often find remnants of the old world-the world where they had invaded.

He was fascinated with the broken and torn buildings, which made for perfect urban exploration away from all the noise.

Eli found signs of stragglers who weren't captured or killed when the war had ended, but he never came across a single soul as most of the old population had been wiped out during the great war.

He sighed knowing the destruction on both worlds, his world being so barren was why they moved over here as there wasn't a lot of cleanup work needed to be done to allocate people homes and shelters to live in while they worked on restoring their own home.

Eli passed down a street he had been familiar with which had an old beaten down pub which would soon be dismantled, he wanted to visit it for as long as he could before it was gone.

Though it wasn't a really old pub like in his world where places would be abandoned for years and nature would engulf it.

He walked inside to see everything was either charred from fire, or had broken walls and glass scattered on the floor.

While kicking the glass away Eli found himself sitting on a table had made for himself and stared at a painting though it had been torned and mold had started growing. He could make a few faces for what was left of the painting which reminded him of the leaders of this planet who had sacrificed themselves to save the planet only for it to fail.

Eli sat there not knowing why he would stare at them, maybe wondering if they could have just been friendly rather than waging an all out war causing the end of one species.

"All because of a crystal," Eli laughed sitting there.

"We don't even know if the breach exists and even if the species we wiped out had access to it whatever information they could give us is gone well I just hope our leaders don't regret the destruction they caused," Eli said while punching his fists on the table before deciding he was bored and wanted to head home.

But before he could head out, Eli heard a small groaning along with the sound of glass shattering. He turned his head to the direction of the sound and too his horror he saw one of the survivors of the planet's inhabitants. Eli stepped back nearly tripping over debri from the pub.

The survivor looked to be female, her hair was greasy and she also wore broken armor and makeshift bandages around her wounds. She looked dazed and dizzy as if she had no memory of the war.

Eli stood still in fear not wanting to move in fear he would attract the enemies attention or even worse if another group was nearby He knew that there were still survivors and some who have managed to live out under the radar.

Eli knew if he had any confrontation with the enemy he would never hear the last of it. He waited for the right time to leave without being noticed but when her head turned to face him Eli froze.

"Help...me," she said reaching out her hand towards Eli before passing out.

Eli not knowing what to do he just hightailed it out of the pub to avoid what consequences he'd face helping a labeled terrorist.

Running down the city streets he ran as fast as his legs could carry him before his body fell exhausted and came to a stop. Eli began to pant while keeping hand held against the bus stop sign.

With sweat pouring down his forehead he wondered if leaving her would still be worse but ignored it knowing full well the governing police would shoot him down for treason.

It wasn't long until the bus had finally arrived, did Eli shake the nervous away and took out his bus card and swiped it on the card reader before taking a seat.

Sitting down on the bus seat he tapped his fingers against the bus windows and kept his eyes out the window wondering if anyone would find the enemy who had passed out in the pub.

Eli let the hour pass pondering on who the soldier was as the bus took him to a pit stop midway from home, when the hour passed he finally made it sprinting out of the bus and running down the street to where he would meet someone to pick him up the person in the car looked up at Eli in surprise not knowing he would be at the pick up station half an hour early.

Eli waved his hand before trudging slowly towards the car.

The driver of the car got up and opened the back door and let him in.

"Why are you out early?" the driver asked.

Eli shrugged.

"You do what my parents tell you to do, remember if I need a pick up just do it," Eli answered, finally rolling his eyes.

"Your parents won't like it when your grades keep dropping," the driver said before closing the door and getting into the driver's seat.

Eli buckled himself up in the car seat and just shrugged his shoulder.

"Alright then your choice," the driver added before finally driving the car to Eli's home at the other side of the city.

When the driver made it to the house Eli got out himself before the driver asked him if he had forgotten his bag.

"Well yes that's why I don't have it on me, not that I need it at home anyway," Eli replied before storming off.

Having it made to his parents house he looked up at the two storey farm house which was made to keep them away from the rest of society for a reason his parents won't tell him.

Which made Eli even more frustrated.

After having recovered from the war his parents have never been the same.

He stopped at the door preparing himself for his parents who would have a talking to with him after going home early.

Once he had readied himself he opened the door only to be welcomed by the emptiness of the house.

"Oh, no one's home," Eli said to himself, shrugging his worries away.

He looked around and saw the lounge room across from the main hallway from the front door was left empty and the tv turned off, the sunlight from the window entered lighting up the entire room.

Eli then walked down the hallway before reaching the stairs to the second floor, but wanted to grab a snack from the kitchen which upahead from him and he did so first.

Once he entered the kitchen it had a huge cooking area along with a fancy oven, a dish washer and a silver fridge with fancy gadgets on the front doors.

Eli moved towards the cupboards he grabbed out some chips and closed the door before heading to the fridge where he grabbed a can of soft drink and headed up to his bedroom on the second to wait for his parents and siblings to come back home.

Eli kept his room in the dark with the only light being his tv being turned on or a small lamp light, he had the bare essentials from a bed in the far back of the room, tv desk with a large tv and a computer desk where he would study. He also had a bean bag when he just wanted to watch tv.

Eli turned on the tv and switched through the channels, he had a routine where he would flick through all the channels before clicking on the news channel as nothing good was on.

He just liked the background noise.

But today, today was different.

Eli sat up with his mouth open, a group of cops surrounded the pub he was just at it had now been reduced to rubble.

"Shit!" He yelled to himself.

He knew he didn't care about the girl he had left behind, but if the cops discovered any of his DNA there he'd likely be left as a suspect, talk about the wrong time, wrong place Eli thought

"Shit, Shit," Eli said in a panic seeing the cops had discovered bandages left from the girl.

."It's fine she's likely not going to get far with those injuries," Eli thought to himself calmly.

Though from the conversation the news reporter was blurting out Eli couldn't help but worry if the other rebels had regrouped with her…

Now that would be an issue he thought.

"No there's no way she'd come to find me I'm nothing to her," Eli thought using that to calm himself,

"I mean she is a rebel scum who has better priorities than a fifteen year old boy right?" Eli said to himself while nervously biting on to a chip.

But Eli then felt his smile turn to a frown knowing whose side he was on....

"Well what harm can leaving her there do? I could easily write it off as she attacked first but I'm no better then my own race now am I?" Eli asked himself.

"No I'm not getting myself involved in this situation," Eli said again while taking another bite out of the chip.

But before he could finish the chip he dropped it when the news reporter spoke once again-

"We urge any witnesses of this girl to report to the police; we will find her and anyone who might be linked to helping her,"the news reporter spoke with urgency. Eli sat there wide eyes staring at the news reporter even if it wasn't a threat those words glued to his brain.

"Oh shit what do I do?!" Eli yelled at himself shutting off the tv.

"No it's fine this is all fine, it's not like they could trace me with it all turned to rubble right?" Eli asked himself as he began pacing back and forth in his room, he hated everyone on this planet for the traumas and destruction they caused but even with all the compensation they gave everyone it wasn't enough for Eli.

Eli hatred festered within him.

But what he feared even more was being an outcast.

"No just calm down your the cool person everyone hates remember?" Eli said to himself trying to calm himself down before his family arrived.

Eli decided to sit down and contemplate on the situation he knew eventually it might catch up to him but now he was certain he was safe.

There's no way a rebel like her would want to find me? Eli asked himself.

"Look Eli we didn't help her, I just left her. I'm sure they would accept that right, right?" Eli asked though the government would have preferred her dead. I'm only a teen Eli thought again.

"So why am I overthinking this am I scared that war is going to start again is that what that is it can't be because we have severely outnumbered there kind," Eli said to himself trying to reassure himself but badly.

"Just remember if they try to attack we can just wipe them out with Nykium infused cannons," Eli said, finally breathing with a sigh of relief knowing no one could get through those cannons.

He turned the tv back on and switched the channel away, before slowly allowing himself to take a nap to sleep till his parents arrived.

***

3 hours later

When Eli heard the sounds of his family entering the house, he got up from his beanbag and headed downstairs to welcome his parents.

Since his siblings all went to different schools they had to get different people to pick them up which usually took them a lot longer to get home, even his siblings were on his side about the security being confusing.

"Hey how are you guys doing?" Eli asked, waving at them, his oldest brother shrugged, smiled but shrugged again before leaving. He wore a jacket, brown shirt and shorts. His hair was kept really short and wore shades that black so you couldn't see his eyes.

"Bye Sam," Eli said before turning to his second brother who was the same age as him but a few months younger.

He had a cheerful smile about him and unlike his older brother wore the formal school suit and had a hat over his short brown hair.

"Eli you're early!" Tj shouted.

Eli shrugged trying to change the subject so his parents wouldn't question but he could already see the stern looks.

Though they both turned to each other to ignore Tj's statement allowing Eli to sigh before his younger sister walked towards him on her tippy-toes and gave him a huge cheeky smile.

"Mum and Dad are going to be so mad," Rosey said with her huge grin over face , causing Eli to sweat.

Rosey wore a school dress, her hair was dark brown and tied up in a ponytail, she soon turned her grin to smile before walking off with Tj to leave Eli alone with his parents.

Well this is it the moment I prepared myself for earlier about me heading out early Eli thought while he gulped in fear.

Please just don't be a sirsours punishment Eli thought to himself.

And that was when his father spoke first, he wore a full black fancy suit and held a briefcase in his left hand, his tie was neatly made and his hair was gelled and a monocle covered his left eye. He looked down at Eli in disappointment.

"Hey Dad, how was work?" Eli asked, feeling the stern cold eyes staring into his soul.

"Fine I don't care where you head out to but because your grades are low I'd wish you didn't we don't want an embarrassment to the family," Eli's Dad said.

Eli stared at his feet feeling like he was stung in the heart.

"Rory we don't need to be that harsh," Eli's mother said though Eli didn't want to look up in case his father would add more salt to his wounds.

"Since you don't appreciate real work like your other siblings I will have you transferred to another school who will teach you discipline, after all I know where you we're I have my sources," Rory explained.

Eli gulped in fear wondering if he meant by the enemy soldier he saw…

"What do you mean?" Eli asked, trying to shake off the subject.

" As long as you fix your grades and your dispilance my sources won't have to hear of your cowardice," Rory said before walking away from Eli.

"I will be sending you to the other school in two days to make sure you grab your bag this time?" Rory added.

Eli nodded, his body shivering and trembling.

A moment later Eli felt the warm embrace of his mother hugging him.

"Don't mind Rory, he's just worried you the way your grades have dropped and how you haven't made any friends since we moved here has us all worried," Eli's mother said.

However Eli just clenched his fists, he knew he had to make his life better but he just didn't care.

Not after what his species has done, he hated the fact that everyone just quickly turned a blind eye to there destruction and pretended like the war had never happened.

It hurt him.

"I know I will try this time," Eli said masking a fake smile.

Knowing his mother always went easy on him she took the smile as a good sign and went looking for his father.

Eli just stood there taking his bearings before finally heading back to his room that was when he wiped away a tear slipping down his cheek.