Omega

Chapter 2

Jack was on the skinny side, and wore a dirty tan trench coat with scavenger bandage and net clothes underneath. Around his waist was a heavy duty utility belt, along with holsters. On top of Jack's head was a tan, dirtied pilot's cap. He wore fingerless gloves, and a compass on a chain around his neck.
Jack pulled down his scarf and adjusted his green-tinted goggles to sit above the brim of his pilot's cap. Doing this revealed emerald green eyes and a slightly rounded face. There was a fading scar underneath his left eye.
Jack held out his hand, "What's your name?" He asked.
Andrew shook Jack's hand, "Andrew. Andrew Smith."
Jack released Andrew's hand and looked around the room, "Looks like we're the only ones here."
"Yup," Andrew responded, not really caring.
Jack, being someone from the wastelands of the scavenging East, wondered on how Andrew's Southern farm life was like. All Jack had ever known was wasteland. He was always told to scavenge for what he wanted, even steal. Jack had only signed up because he was tired of all of it. He wanted only to escape to another world.
Jack's tunnel house wasn't far from NASA's building. In fact, it was right under it. He loved finding broken parts of shuttles and piecing them together to create hovercrafts. The entrance to his tunnel was actually on the dune behind the building, and it was covered by radio-protective titanium doors. He was easily able to get here today and sign up. Heck, Jack was the first person there.
He and Andrew sat there and waited for other people, or someone to direct them to another place to sit and wait.
As if on que, a tall man walked in, wearing a white sport jacket and a black dress shit underneath. His eyes were hidden by mirrored sunglasses. He motioned for the two boys to follow him.
Jack and Andrew followed the man down a long white hallway with bright blue lights in the ceiling. Jack looked over at Andrew and noted that all the color had drained from the boy's face.
They eventually reached a thick steel door, and the man punched in a few numbers on a keypad to unlock it. Jack memorized them just in case.
The man led them inside the door and into a room full of equipment. There was a row of ten chairs, each of them numbered. The man motioned to the chairs and finally spoke, "Sit here. Tell me your ages."
Jack was the first to speak up, "I am eleven years old, sir."
Andrew then told his age, the color in his face still absent, "I am fourteen years old, sir."
After the two of them sat down in the first two chairs, the man pulled out a pad of sticky notes and a marker. On one sticky note he wrote "207-11a", and on another "207-14a"
He then took the two notes and stuck them on the boys' shirts.
"These are your serial numbers," he stated, "You will be addressed by your age and a letter of the alphabet."
The man then turned around and held his wrist up to his arm, "This is Josh Twenty, send in the first six."
'Josh Twenty' turned back around, cocked his head, smiled, and hastily left, locking the boys in the room by theirselves.

Jack turned to Andrew,
"So," he said, trying to start conversation, "What's the deal with him, huh?"
Andrew ignored him.
The titanium door across from them opened and six more kids stumbled through. Three were boys, the other three were girls. Most of them wore a standard Northern outfit; an aviators cap, a leather flight jacket, fingerless gloves, bronze-rimmed goggles, black boots, white long-sleeve cotton shirts, and blue denim jeans.
But one boy stood out from the ground of six children.
He a black trench coat, a scavenger tan under shirt, dark black denim jeans, black flight boots, and fingerless black gloves. Around his waist was a dark tan leather utility belt with holsters, and wrapped around the trench coat was a bandolier with spikes above the shoulder. Around his neck was a black silk scarf that covered his nose and mouth.
This boy seemed to be the intimidating yet intelligent leader of the group.
He sat down next to Andrew with absolutely no emotion showing on his face. The other boys and boys quickly followed suit, sitting in their own chairs.
The boy-in-the-black-clothes' serial number read "207-12a"
Andrew didn't bother to read any body else's.
Jack looked around at the other boys and girls, avoiding their 'leader'(?). The children seemed dazed, as if they came out of a year long sleep. Most of their eyes were a sapphire blue, so they were obviously all Northern. Jack's own emerald green eyes meant he was Eastern. Andrew was clearly Southern for his pale grey eyes. Who knew what quarter the boy-in-the-black-clothes belonged to, his eyes were milky white, so it was impossible to tell. His outfit didn't match anything he'd seen either.
It was odd that he was noticing things like this. Maybe he was just being intimidated by the boy. His features just stood out from the rest.
Jack took a deep breath and laid back in his chair, trying to calm and get control of himself.
He felt someone staring.
Jack turned to the left and saw the boy-in-black staring straight at him. The boy cocked his head, blinked, then laid back into his chair. Jack felt his heart pounding in his chest. Something about that boy scared him.
Jack leaned back in his chair once more and gripped the arm rests. He just needed to calm down. Jack slowly exhaled and fell asleep.