Team Crafted: Second Generation

Tyler

"Welcome to the Kingdom." 

I stared at the tall wall in front of us, barricading us from going into the actual Kingdom. 

"Is that all gold?" I asked, and Mitch froze, turning to face my dad. 

"You actually use the g-word now?" He asked. 

"Dude, I'm not six anymore." Dad replied, a smile on his face. 

"Funny, I seem to recall you calling it butter when you were eighteen." Jason said. 

"Shut up." Dad said, lightly shoving Jason's shoulder. "Yeah, it's all gold." 

"You could say your dad here had a slight obsession." Ssundee said. 

Quentin snorted a laugh. "Slight?" 

"Okay, okay, they get it, I was a weird kid. Can we move on now?" Dad asked, stepping towards two giant doors in the wall that had been left open a crack, but not wide enough for any of us to fit through.

"Now, we don't know the kind of damage the attack left, and we don't know if anyone came back," Ty reminded us. "So be prepared for anything, alright?" 

We all nodded, and I noticed Shane's hand grasping on to the hilt of his sword, a smile on his face. 

"What are you smiling for?" I asked, keeping my voice quiet as the adults went to go push the door open. 

"Dude. Be prepared for anything means be prepared to stab something evil. I haven't gotten to stab anything evil for a week. I'm so ready for this."

I gave him a look. "Y'know, sometimes, your need to kill things is scary." 

"Hey, I'm a Hughes. It's in my blood." He said. "My dad's been a Hunger Games champion somewhere around a thousand times."

"I repeat: scary." 

"Thank you." Shane said, a grin on his face. 

Suddenly, a loud creaking noise made me look towards the door. The adults had just managed to shove it open enough for one person to get through. 

"Well, that should do the trick." Jerome said. 

Mitch gestured towards the door, looking at my dad. "Ladies first." 

"Oh, hush up." Dad said, but he pulled out his sword and went through the door, the others following him. 

"Let's go, guys." I said, following after the adults, the rest of my friends behind me. 

The second I got through the door, I froze, taking in the scene. 

"Holy-" Ssundee went on to say a word I wasn't allowed to say around adults. 

The place was completely trashed. Roofs of buildings had caved in. Parts of the wall were crumbling into nothing. Fires were burning almost everywhere you looked, and if I stared for long enough, I could see the outlines of...were those dead people?

Macey grabbed on to my arm, hiding her face behind me, not wanting to see it. 

We all stood there in silence, trying to comprehend what we were looking at, all horrified by the scene. 

Dad was the first to snap out of it. "We have to see if there are survivors anywhere." 

When no one moved, he yelled. "Hey! There are people who could be stuck somewhere! Snap out of it, we have to go see if they need help!" 

"Sky, the entire Kingdom is huge. Searching the whole thing would take ages-" 

"I don't care, Jerome! These are innocent Recruits, I'm not just going to leave them to die!" 

"We don't know if there are any survivors here at all." Quentin said. 

"But what if there is, and we leave them to die?" Dad said. 

"Woah, woah, woah." Jason said. "We're not going to get anything done if we're all screaming at each other."

"He's right." Quinn spoke up. 

"Alright, fine. So what are we supposed to do then?" Ty asked. 

"We could split up." Alyssa suggested. "Cover more ground, all that stuff."

"No way." Dad said. "That's too dangerous. There could be Shadows roaming around." 

"You said it yourself, Dad." I cut in. "People could be dying. And the Kingdom's too big for all of us to look in one group."

"You kids could get seriously hurt." He said. 

"No offense," Jenna said. "But we've already been seriously hurt."

"She's correct." Cameron said. "We've made it through several situations where there was a much higher risk factor, whether or not that risk was probable or not." 

Dad looked over at Ssundee. "I still can't get over how smart your kid is."

Ssundee smiled. "Me neither." 

Dad sighed. "Okay, fine. We'll split up. But everyone needs to be back here before...say, the sun sets. Alright?" 

"Sounds like something out of a cheesy fairytale." Mitch said. "But alright." 

"Macey, why don't you go with Dad?" I suggested. "I don't think you and just a knife is a good idea, no matter how powerful that knife is."

She shook her head, and spoke quietly. "I can do this on my own." 

"Are you sure?" I asked, and she nodded. 

"Alright, then everything's settled." Jason said. "Everyone go in separate directions, look for survivors, don't forget to see if you can find any clues as to where Darklox's new base could be, and be back here before sunset. Everyone got it?"

"Got it." Everyone said. 

"Awesome. Let's head out!" 

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Kind of a short chapter today, but don't worry, because next week, a new character that a lot of you have asked for is on the way...

Art this week is by MeDaNinja !