Never the Same - Team Crafted Stories (DISCONTINUED)

Part I Chapter 4: The Orphan

(A/N: I was wondering, does anyone actually read this? Probably not.)

Jason's POV

Sky probably already told you a lot about me. The name's Jason. Jason Parker. (A/N: ik that's not his real last name) I'm nineteen years old. I've got gray-blue eyes, short brown hair, and I'm a lot shorter than the rest of my friends. I'm a member of Team Crafted. And in my own way, I'm different from everyone else.

I was orphaned when I was very young. My parents died in a zombie attack on my village when I was only two years old, and the whole thing was destroyed. I may not remember them, but I remember my sister, Gabrielle.

Gabrielle, or Gabbi, was ten years old when the zombies attacked, which means she would've been twenty-seven if she was alive today. I still have a fuzzy memory of what happened, but what I do remember is that our parents told Gabbi to take me and run. It was clear that they weren't going to make it out. Gabbi understood. She grabbed everything we needed, and we ran.

Hold on, I'm gonna get to the part about the Lab. Let me finish.

We ran through the woods, calling out for people. Well, actually, I was being an obnoxious brat, crying and wailing my head off because I was scared. Heck, I couldn't even hold a knife correctly back then. And it was the dead of the night. Mobs were everywhere. One mistake, and Gabbi and I were dead.

Far off, I heard sounds of zombies, and Gabbi hid me in a little cave. She told me to wait there, and if she didn't come back, then I would have to find the next village on my own.

Gabbi kissed me goodbye, and that was the last I ever saw of her. I waited for hours and hours, but she never returned. I was scared out of my mind.

But she left me with a final gift to remember her by. A golden amulet, with a silver star engraved into it. Even today, I still wear it, to remember the sacrifice that Gabbi made for me.

I stayed in that cave for a long time, and eventually, I started crying. A group of hunters stumbled across me, and brought me back to their village. That's where I still live today. A family took me in, and I've lived with them for mostly my whole life.

My home is the southern forests. It's pretty freaking hot here. The town I live in, which is called Grapevine, is hidden in the Texxan Forests, near the Grand River. Life there is pretty boring. Grapevine's just your normal average town of Minecraft.

I have three friends that I'll always hang out with when I'm in Grapevine. Austin and I have been friends as long as I can remember. Our favorite thing to do together is make music. We set up the machines, and play around for hours on end until we come up with something that sounds good. If I wasn't a member of Team Crafted, I'd probably be a songwriter or an actor. That's where my other two friends come in. Madison and Clarissa are two of the most popular girls in Grapevine, and we've been friends since we were five years old, before gender mattered with friends. We always put on plays, skits, and "movies" for our friends when we were little. At least that's what they've told me. I don't remember a thing about it. We still do skits for our friends nowadays.

Sky and I were thrown into the Labs together. As we talked, I told him everything about me. My star amulet from Gabbi, my friends, Austin, Madison, and Clarissa. My quiet little village where I grew up. Sky talked about his childhood - how Dakota was his only friend, how he had been transformed into a mutant, the terrible abuse he suffered at home, the depression he had gone through. He showed me his wrists - there were faded lines everywhere, signs of his depression. There was also one fresh cut, still bleeding. He told me it was from that morning, when his sister Skyler had yelled at him in front of half the town. He told me he didn't want to go back, if we ever escaped this place. I promised him that someday, when we escaped, that we would live together, in our own house. Three years later, that dream became a reality.

The men dragged us away from our cell, and threw us into their machine, the Shrinkinator 3000. When we woke up again, we were back in our cell, except everything was four times larger than it should've been. We were tiny, and the world was huge. Since we were so tiny, Sky and I began to plan an escape. When the door to our cell opened and someone came in to check on us, we slipped out the crack in the door. We were free, but our next challenge was escaping the dang place!

There were so many guards and so many scientists. Sky and I got separated way too many times. Scientists would often spot us scurrying around hallways and use us as their test subjects. It hurt... a lot. I still have the scars. I have two huge scars running down my cheeks and smaller scars running up and down my legs and arms, so I always wear a space helmet and spacesuit to hide it. I also wear the suit for another reason, but that's another story. Sky has way less scars than I do, because I was the one who was found a lot more often and used in an experiment. I have too many painful memories of that place; that's why when we find its location again, Sky and I will happily blow it up.

I also remember that once, Sky and I accidentally ran into a lab room where a boy, who was around our age, was being experimented on. He had machines hooked up to him, and the scientists were poking all sorts of needles filled with liquid into him. He already had blue skin as a result of the mutations. We didn't find out his name back then, but now, we know him as Quentin Backers. Sky and I saw a lot more kids just like him. We promised them, we would come back and stop all the mutation experiments. And we will, we just gotta find the Labs again!

It took three weeks. Three weeks of running around the Labs, three weeks of torture and experiments for me and Sky. We found ourselves in the middle of the desert - the Arizonian Desert, to be exact. Sky and I wandered for a long time, until we came to the safety of Phoenix. Phoenix was a small desert village in the middle of nowhere, next to an oasis. One of the families there volunteered to shelter Sky and me for a few days until we were ready to move on.

We ended up staying much, much longer than we planned. Two other kids lived in the house with us. The boy's name was Tyler, but he preferred to be called Ty, and he was two years younger than me, three years younger than Sky. His sister, Rose, was younger than us. We spent our days playing in the hot sands beyond Phoenix. Ty showed us everything - parkour, mods, his adventures with his friend Seto, who I've only met twice in my life, but he seems like a nice guy.

Ty, Sky, and I began to become really good friends. We ended up forgetting when we were going to go home. Ty told us about his life, living in the Arizonian Desert. Sky told us about life in the Oregon Hills, in the rainy, gloomy, village of Seattle. I told them all about my boring life in Grapevine and the Texxan Forest. We passed our days exploring, learning, and making memories. We lost track of time, and six months passed. Sky and I knew we had to go, but we didn't want to leave each other. Ty - being the genius he is - suggested that we meet here in Phoenix every two months. It was a great idea. Phoenix was halfway between Seattle and Grapevine, and we'd still get to see each other.

Sky and I set off for home, feeling more lonely than ever before. I returned home, and I was welcome back with open arms. But life there was boring, and dull. I longed for adventure, like I had experienced with Ty and Sky. I wanted danger, like Sky and I had gone through in our escape from the Labs.

And are you wondering about the spacesuit? Sure, it's to cover the scars, but I also love outer space. The stars, the moons, the planets, the creatures, the endless worlds beyond our own; someday, I will explore it all. It's gonna be another great adventure with me and the rest of the Team. And it all began with the amulet and Gabbi.

Together, Ty, Sky, and I were the first three members of Team Crafted.

~Anna